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Internationally celebrated and distinguished artist Dempsey Bob once got a ‘C minus’ from his high school art teacher.
It was the mid-’60s, and Bob, a Tahltan and Tlingit man originally from Telegraph Creek in the northwest corner B.C., was attending a Catholic high school in Prince George.
“She told me I didn’t draw the way she wanted me to draw,” he said in an interview with CBC. “And I told her, I’m Tahltan and Tlingit, I can’t deny who my ancestors are. That’s the way I see it and that’s what I do.”
The exchange didn’t deter the northwest coast artist but instead made him more determined to focus on the art of his ancestors.
Now, more than five decades later, the artist’s oeuvre of wood carvings have been featured in museum collections and exhibits all around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan, and Canada House in London.
And in 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada — one of the nation’s highest civilian honours.
“I thought I did pretty good for someone with a ‘C minus’,” he said.
The 75-year-old master carver has been keeping busy with Wolves: The Art of Dempsey Bob, a retrospective that charts his progression as an artist from the early 1970s until today. The touring exhibition has been to Whistler and Montreal and opens at the Kelowna Art Gallery on Oct. 14, where it will run until Feb. 18, 2024.
Wolves features a collection of masks, wall sculptures, vessels, and regalia from private collections and museums all brought together for the first time.
WATCH | Dempsey Bob speaks about the importance of art
Much of the art on display, according to the Kelowna Art Gallery’s executive director Nataley Nagy has never been seen before.
Even Bob lost sight of some of his creations, which he hadn’t seen for decades since he carved them.
“I felt like some of the masks were saying, ‘Where have you been, Dad? It’s been 40 years’,” he said.
Art to remember his ancestry
Bob firmly believes that art preserves culture and helps to honour those who perfected it and passed it down through generations.
He was born to a family of storytellers, singers, songwriters, weavers and carvers, but his parents and grandparents weren’t able to freely express themselves with their art as he is able to today.
From the late 19th century until 1951, the Indian Act restricted Indigenous ceremonies, such as the potlatch, consequently putting restrictions on Indigenous culture and practices.
“I’m carving for my ancestors because they weren’t allowed to,” he said. “I have been doing it for my grandparents and my mum.”
He said it was his mother who encouraged him to take on wood carving and was his biggest supporter when he was just starting out.
The retrospective Wolf is also meant to be a tribute to his mother who belonged to the Wolf Clan.
Learning under Freda Diesing
As a young child, Bob would often take a pocket knife and spend hours carving toys out of wood.
“We made canoes, slingshots, bows and arrows.”
But he only considered taking up wood carving as a career when he met Freda Diesing, a trailblazing Haida artist and one of the very few female carvers of Northwest Coast totem poles.
Shortly after graduating from his high school in Prince George, Bob began studying carving under Diesing in Prince Rupert.
“I had a friend who was going to study with Freda and he wanted somebody to go with him,” he said.
Eventually, Bob agreed and went to Prince Rupert — a decision that ultimately changed the course of his life.
“Frida was a great teacher, a great artist and a great human,” he said.
“She also sent me to Alaska to work with children there,” he said. “At first I didn’t understand why but after drawing over 10,000 ovoids, and ‘U’ shapes and ‘L’ shapes, I finally understood why.”
He said Diesing made him a better artist because she always encouraged him to keep learning and try new things — attributes he also tries to embody as a teacher.
In the fall of 2006, Bob opened the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art in Terrace, B.C., where he is currently based, to honour and continue the legacy of his late teacher.
He wants to showcase the carvings and encourage people to learn about the culture and art.
“Because culture is very important. It is what makes us human.”
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