gooym - spring
Phil Gray
Tsimshian

gooym - Spring Moon 

Phil Gray
Tsimshian

Red cedar, paint
22” x 20” x 8”

Special commission

“In Ts'msyen country, Spring is a time for harvesting seaweed and herring eggs. Skunk cabbage is a sign that seaweed is ready to harvest, so I used a few shades of green to depict this, as well as the yellow for herring eggs. The design is a little more abstract, but I tried to get the feeling of seaweed laying on the rocks, which was difficult because they are not long and stringy like I imagined. (Haha!) It's called purple laver seaweed if you are interested to see what it looks like. For each mask I used an image of Indigenous women I found on google images. Spring makes me think of a fresh start with all of the trees and plants coming to life, a sense of newness, so I used an image of a young indigenous woman from South America for reference.”