6 Paddles

The above photograph is of six First Nations canoe paddles that my father is making stands for. The client is the owner of an art gallery downtown, and back when I worked for my dad I worked on a few previous projects over the years. Each one of these paddles is worth six thousand dollars each. And one of the few advantages of having a craftsman as a father is having work come home, where you can admire work on your own time. Being able to lift and touch and feel art like this with out the limitations of glass boxes and velvet ropes is so cool. I feel like I can appreciate the art more. Usually when I am at an art gallery or museum, if a piece doesn’t grab my attention right away I usually move on. Now that there’s Native art in my living room, I can really appreciate the time and energy that went into creating these works. Besides being able to see the art up-close, there are other advantages, like when you look at the photo you would never guess that the paddle on the far right is actually one of the lightest of the six, and the heaviest by far is in the middle.