I've compiled some key stories along my artwork journey to share with you.
An Idea
After my fast, I had this idea…I had this idea that I would build a big wooden boat. So I went out and bought some White Ash and had it cut into various widths and lengths. This was going to form the keel and the ribs of the boat. This idea led to White Ash becoming a central canvas for my art.
Photo Caption: From left-to-right, Barber of Sueville, My Big Pink One, 6.5 Feathers, The Guardians (orange) Big Bear, The Chief, The Earth On Turtles Back. At the top, Water Walker and the Twins are above the Women of the Dawn.
Going with the Flow
I took some of the cut wood home and began testing it. One night I broke a pen on a piece of wood and the ink leaked into the grains. The lines began to create forms and outlines and images and so I just kept on going with that.
Photo Caption: The Old, Bald, Eagle, Ink on Ash (pre-copper age).
Returning of the Light
I am creative and resourceful. I don't know why I started doing my art. The start was a broken pen on a wooden plank. I have done other art bits before, perhaps four, but never like this. Since I started, for no apparent reason, I have produced about 300 pieces of artwork, including two board games and a comic book, The First 96 pages of The Legend of Gii-wed-anong.
I used to see light or colours around people when I was a kid but then it was lost. I like to think the artwork is a returning of the Light.
Photo Caption: Chi Makwa or Big Bear. He is hibernating, reconnecting to the earth, and sends good medicine on the wings of an eagle.
The (un)Accepted
The artwork is something I still am learning to accept. This was never on my radar of “what do I want to be when I grow up." I am both creative and resourceful and have been known to fix or figure things out, but nothing near what I have been doing lately.
Photo Caption: The First Family Photo. From left-to-right, Darin holding the Water Walker, Women of the Dawn (orange), Descent of Aanishinaabe Kwe, White Wolf Woman, Barber of Sue Ville, Big Bear (purple), and Northern Lights Woman (blue).
From Scraps to Defining Characteristics
I started using copper with “A View of the Sun from the moon of Uranus." I had gone to the local scrap yard in Prince George, BC to find some copper wire to bind the artwork and that's when I found the copper bits, and these copper bits are a unique and defining characteristic of my artwork.
Photo Caption: Pieces of copper that Darin melted to integrate within his artwork.
Embedded Stories
The artwork is alive. It has Spirit, sometimes masculine, sometimes feminine, sometimes both, or even more. They are families, too.
I’ve come to understand that I’m following Spirit Lines, stories embedded in the woodgrain, carried through the water. And water holds memory. That energy lives in the wood, and the wood remembers.
Photo Caption: Eye detail from “Descent of Aanishinaabe Kwe.”
Exploring Venues
I was busy during the pandemic, and began exploring different venues to exhibit my artwork, like The Old Apartment.
Photo Caption: Various artworks, including Starry Night in Fort Saint James (blue) and Mother Earth Takes a Vacation (pink).
Silly and Profound
Over the years, the artwork has improved. They tell me lots of stories, some silly, others profound.
Photo Caption: NDN Bones and the Residential School of Doom - after the Revelations of the Church in Kamloops. Ink on Ash 660x6x64cm.
Letting Go, Rising Up
Woman in the Water talks about letting things go and rising to the top. She says, like our bodies, our Spirits are buoyant.
Photo Caption: Woman in the Water, ink and copper on Ash.
We Meet Again
You met the Descent of Anishinaabe Kwe, in the First Family Photo, as shown in “The (un)Accepted” part of my journey. Here she is complete. She depicts the moment when the first human was lowered from the Divine Light and placed upon the Earth.
Photo Caption: Descent of Aanishinaabe Kwe, on display at Blue Nose Marina, Cowichan Bay, BC. The size is 180x180x60 cm, with ink and copper on planks of White Ash.
Another View
This is the back view of Descent of Aanishinaabe Kwe, which is also known as the Maid en (of) Prince George. She represents the fall of Indigenous women to colonialism.
Photo Caption: Maid en (of) Prince George or Descent of Aanishinaabe Kwe, on display at Blue Nose Marina, Cowichan Bay, BC.
New Home
Woman in the Water, installed in her new home.
A Close-Up
This is the Headpiece and close up of Tim, a Thunderbird, and this piece is called Thunderbird Rising or “Ascension.”
Photo Caption: Thunderbird Rising - Acrylic and Copper on White Ash (15x15x2 cm).
Reconnecting, Disconnecting
Left-to-right, this is the front and back of the same artwork, called Lighthouse. The blue piece is re-connecting to the Light and the orange back is being dis-connected from the Light.
Photo Caption: Lighthouse, ink and Copper on White Ash planks, 110x26x2 cm.
Translating
I am a translator of information contained in the grains.
Photo Caption: His name is Dragonfly. He was the first of the six part Spirit Journey. He reminds us to bi maad zid - walk gently upon the Earth.
