Book Description
This reference and instructional manual contains a detailed, thoroughly analyzed, well-supported comparison of the four Pacific Northwest First Nations art styles. There are 800 clear, detailed illustrations accompanied by straightforward copy.
Topics include design formline, ovoids, U shapes, S shapes, heads, body parts, and design formation, as well as a step-by-step How to Draw section. 8 1/2" by 11", black and white, durable soft cover, 224 pages.
Customer Reviews:
Not what it could have been.......2004-11-06
This is an excellent tutorial in some respects. The instructions are step-by-step, and it is packed with illustrations. However, there is little attempt to address the theme behind the art, to establish the "rules of the form" as, say, Aidan Meehan's books have done for Celtic Art. Bill Holm's classic "Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form" remains the best bet in this field if you are interested in creating original designs in this style. If however, you just want to copy preformed designs and get a feel for the modern trends in this style, this is a good introductory choice. And I do mean modern trends. The other glaring insufficiency in this book is its lack of a classic feel. Many of the designs are not strictly traditional, and though some see this as a sign of vitality, I see it as a blemish on a grand tradition.
If "doing" without understanding is enough..........2003-11-04
37 pages of curriculum instruction, 3 pages of history/meanings, 11 pages to teach you how to draw two ovoids one within the other...
Nice instructors manual and handout source for a kids workshop, but the lack of _meaning_ and information density is very low.
I felt like more than half of the book is missing, perhaps volume 2 has more meaningful discusion.
All in all, not a bad book, but not what I was hoping for, if you want an intense course on the mechanics of drawing NWNA, then this is it. If you are teaching children, this is a good resource too.
good beginnings........2002-12-09
This book is an excellent opening into NW Coastal art. It does not address the meanings or legends but mainly how designs are created and build up of elements. Lots of illustrations. Its an excellent reference for the carver or artist wanting to work with the designs (note: no carving techniques etc are discussed; just design but that is enough)
Full of information = full of courage.......2002-09-18
I bought this book during an Alaskan cruise. By the time we reached our 3rd stop, Ketchikan, we were comfortably literate in North Coast Indian art. (Not experts!) I impressed a carver by being able to identify the animals in the totem pole he was carving. Being able to identify the animals gave our trip a richness we would not have had.
But even better, this wonderful volume, full of instructions, gave me the courage to try to draw something and I am NOT an artist. However, we now have a family totem: a North Coast Indian art version of our Norwich terrier. This book was worth every penny. I can't wait until the volume 2 comes out.
One of the best books on the topic.......2000-11-21
I've purchased EVERY book I can find on the topic of Pacific Northwest Coast Native Indian artwork (currently I have over 40), and this is one of the best, especially if you want to try your hand at this type of artwork.
This book contains tons of examples, explanations, and a nice amount of info about the tribes and styles. This is the only book I've found with a section that actually takes you step-by-step through the process of creating some Northwest Coast art! (Note that the recently-published volume 2 also does.)
The only downside I can see is that the artwork is relatively "modern" and representational, and does not cover some of the older or more abstract styles. On the other hand, it does not seem to be intended to be complete. The goal of the book is to help someone delve into this sort of artwork, and it does that very well. I've taken in-person classes from several people who are acknowledged experts in the field and/or natives (including a Haida Master Carver), and they teach the same sorts of basics this book does.
If you want to try your hand at drawing this kind of art, I recommend that you buy "Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast" by Hilary Stewart as an excellent book for giving you an overview and feel for the art form, buy this book and volume 2 by the same authors for the extensive examples and how-to information, and I also recommend "An Analysis of Form" by Bill Holm, which is the single most in-depth study of the elements that are used in PNWC artwork.
Book Description
This companion manual to Volume 1 puts First Nations art into deeper cultural context, providing Native Indian philosophy, knowledge and skills foundation, code of ethics, and interviews with a contemporary First Nations family, as well as some aspects of historical context and a description of the Potlatch. A full colour, 16-page creation story with 20 designs is included. Additional topics include: contemporary design evolution with 50 examples, 20 designs to draw and paint, and a Quick Reference Chart containing over 100 designs.
Average customer rating:
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Solitary Raven: Selected Writings of Bill Reid
Manufacturer: University of Washington Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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The Spirit of Haida Gwaii: Bill Reid's Masterpiece
ASIN: 029598080X |
Book Description
When Haida sculptor Bill Reid died in 1998, he was more widely and more fervently admired than any other Native American artist. Reid attained his greatest fame in the visual arts, but words were his first professional medium. He made his living as a radio announcer and script writer until he received his first large carving commission, in 1958. Indeed, one of his several Haida names was Kihlguulins, "the one with the beautiful voice." His oratorical and literary gifts are rightly part of the Reid legend.
Despite that gift for words, much of what he wrote was published only in the fugitive domain of newspapers, magazines, and exhibition catalogues. Other works were broadcast or recorded as the voice-tracks of documentary films but never printed. Still others have waited until now to be released in any form.
This book collects, for the first time, the most important of these widely scattered writings: seminal statements on the art of the Northwest Coast, on the role of the Native American artist in a multicultural world, and on the quintessential role of both the artist and the environment in the survival of human culture.
Customer Reviews:
Not all "Northwest Coast".......2006-12-27
Great, yet another book about "Northwest Coast" and "Coast Salish" art that ignores the art of the Salish Indians of Western Washington. Ever since J. E. Standley flooded the Seattle tourist market with the fake Kwakiutle artwork, fake totem poles, and other hybrids of art forms from the northern coast Salish tribes, the art forms that are indigenous to our tribes here in western Washington have been all but forgotten, brushed aside by authors who chase the market with books that pretend to deal with all "of the Northwest Coast" but in reality ignore anything south of the 49th Parallel.
Beautiful and Informational.......2006-10-10
Interesting and well written, this book has been not only a wonderful source of entertainment but a good reference for this native art style. Every image is a beautiful example of the style, and covers several medias (print, paint, clothing and carving). Stewart spends time covering all the basics, from the rudimentary design principles, to the myths and symbolism of the many animals and figures represented by the examples. Differences between tribal styles are also covered, each group accompanied by several wonderful examples of the art. This book is a great starting place for anyone wanting to study this art form, whether it be primarily cultural or artistic.
Encyclopedia of Haida.......2006-03-16
This is a great book if you are looking for explanations of the history of the Haida artwork and drawings. It also includes many examples of the artwork and is easy to read and understand for all ages.
What I needed.......2004-12-25
Great pictures, explainations, and examples, Put in wonderful catagories and easy to understand!! Fully recommend!! I wish there was more of it as it is so well thought out!!
Great details and good reading..........2001-08-02
Through well-detailed photographs and drawings, this book provides a nice introduction to Northwest tribal art. It uses examples of two- and three-dimensional works of art to explain the meanings and symbolism behind the animal motifs. You will quickly learn to recognize the ovoid, and S and U shapes that are characteristic to the art form. It also explains stylistic differences between the different cultural groups. I used this book on a trip through the Northwest and it really enriched my experience.
Average customer rating:
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The Spirit Within
Steven Brown
Manufacturer: Rizzoli International Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0847818470
Release Date: 1995-04-15 |
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- An exciting find in Northwest Indian textile art
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The Raven's Tail: Northern Geometric Style Weaving
Cheryl Samuel
Manufacturer: University of British Columbia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0774802243 |
Customer Reviews:
An exciting find in Northwest Indian textile art.......1998-08-24
There is a famous portrait of Katlian, Chief of the Kiksatti Clan of the Tlingit Indians of Sitka, Alaska, that shows him wearing a blanket of a design otherwise lost. Weaver Cheryl Samuel spent around a year trying to replicate the pattern, which she named "Raven's Tail." It is a bold black-and-white symmetrical design completely unknown today. The book is a result of Ms. Samuel's research. It is well-illustrated with photographs of her work. She not only finally managed to weave a blanket but since has traveled within Southeastern Alaska and down to British Columbia to demonstrate the technique to other weavers. There is an up-date to this; only a few weeks ago (July, 1998) a tiny sample of an actual blanket was discovered during an archaeological dig in Sitka, Alaska. To add to the excitement, another, larger piece has been discovered nearby. These show, on preliminary examination, a complete vindication of the author's technique. The only drawback to the book is the sometimes confused writing. Overall, an important book in the study of NW textiles, affirmed by the discovery of actual pieces.
Amazon.com
British-born Jonathan Raban sets out on a passage from Seattle to Juneau in a small boat that is more a waterborne writing den, and as usual with the brilliant Raban, this journey becomes a vehicle for history and heart-stopping descriptions that will make readers want to hail him as one of the finest talents who's picked up a pen in the 20th century. The voyage through the Inside Passage from Washington's Puget Sound to Alaska churns up memories and stirs up hidden emotions and Raban dwells on many, including the death of his father and his own role of Daddy to his young daughter, Julia, left behind in Seattle. More than just a personal travelogue, however, Passage to Juneau deftly weaves in the stories of others before him--from Indians whom white men formerly greeted with baubles set afloat on logs, to Captain Vancouver, who risked mutiny on his ship when he banned visits with prostitutes, some of whom offered their services for bits of scrap metal. Pressed into every page are intimate descriptions of life at sea--the fog-shrouded coasts, the crackly radio that keeps him linked to the mainland, the salty marine air, and the fellow sailors who are likewise drawn by a life of tossing on water. While Raban successfully steers his boat to the desired port, readers ultimately discover that this insightful, talented sage is in fact emotionally in deep water and may not fully be captain of his own life. --Melissa Rossi
Book Description
"Raban is searching and compassionate. . . . And he is at all times eloquent."
-- Richard Ford
Following the overland triumph of
Bad Land--whose prizes included the National Book Critics Circle Award--Jonathan Raban goes to sea.
The Inside Passage from Puget Sound to Alaska is winding, turbulent, and deep--an ancient, thousand-mile-long sea route, rich in dangerous whirlpools, eddies, rips, and races. Here flourished the canoe culture of the Northwest Indians, with their fantastic painted masks and complex iconography and their stories of malign submarine gods and monsters. The unhappy British ship Discovery, captained by George Vancouver, came through these open reaches and narrow chasms in 1792. The early explorers were quickly followed by fur traders, settlers, missionaries, anthropologists, fishermen, and tourists, each with their own designs on this intricate and haunted sea.
When Jonathan Raban set out alone in his own boat to sail from his Seattle home to the Alaskan Panhandle, he wanted to decode the many riddles and meanings of the sea: in Indian art and mythology, in the journals of Vancouver and his officers and midshipmen, in poetry and painting, in the physics of waves and turbulence. His voyage began as an intellectual adventure, but he soon found himself in deeper, more ominously personal waters than he had planned.
In this seaborne epic, Raban brings the past spectacularly alive and renders the present in a prose of sustained brilliance and humor. Exhilarating, panoramic, full of ideas, natural history, and mordant social observation, his journey into the wild heart of North America turns into a profound exploration of the wilderness of the human heart.
Customer Reviews:
My book of the year.......2007-08-29
Raban deftly weaves George Vancouver's expedition with his own journey up North America's West Coast two centuries later.
Introspective and heartfelt, the book is in parts auto-biography, travel-guide and biography. As a Passage to Juneau unwinds, Raban describes situations and others with great perception, yet is never afraid to expose his own frailties.
Passage to Juneau is beautifully written and explores Raban's thoughts every bit as much as the miles of water he covers. A tremendous book and fully deserving of the great praise it has received.
Much Better Than Earlier Raban Book.......2007-05-07
I tend to ignore author Raban's political diatribes (most of his writing, unfortunately) and revel in the beauty of his books about his personal boat journeys. I had earlier read "Old Glory: A Voyage Down The Mississippi" and felt that it lost focus about halfway through the narrative. That book seemed to reflect the desperate lack of focus and national malaise that the Carter administration brought on in the late 70's, and "Old Glory" would not be a Raban book I'd recommend.
However, Passage to Juneau is different. His solo journey by sailboat from Seattle to Juneau in the late 1990s is beautifully written with haunting scenes of his personal life interspersed with his musings on the sea. During the journey, his father dies and his wife demands a separation, the first personal tragedy giving Raban insight into his personal feelings about life and the sea, the second (at the midpoint of his journey, reaching Juneau) causing him to focus inward for the return trip to Seattle.
Despite his occasional lapses towards anti-americanism (throughout the book I kept wondering why he didn't move back to England or at least move north to British Columbia), Passage to Juneau is an intimate portrait of a man who is facing life's trials and the vagaries of some of the more treacherous seas in the world at the same time.
the inside passage.......2007-04-03
I've read many of Mr Raban's books and loved them all but this is my favorite. This isn't just a "travel" book, it's the history of the beautiful Inside Passage. You really feel like you are on Mr Raban's boat as he travels from Seattle, where he lives, to Juneau. He recounts the history of all the travellers who went before him - how certain Sounds and Inlets got their names - tells you about the people he meets - the things he sees - and shares a little piece of his own life history as he travels. During this journey he deals with the death of his Father and his upcoming divorce from his wife. He is a master storyteller. I live on the Puget Sound and have scuba dived up and down this Passage - this book brings the whole area to life. If you haven't enjoyed Mr Raban's prose before now, start here. You'll be hooked.
A Rougher Sea.......2007-01-09
Let me see if I can write a review that does justice to this book and at the same time explain to myself why it is such a great piece of literature.
I think the first point to make is that the writing mirrors the, by turns, eddying, chaotic, reflective quality of the sea itself, leading one deeper and deeper into the author's own meandering introspections about life and, yes, water in a very (to this reader anyway) seductive style, a style which is nothing if not allusive, reflecting Raban's own lifelong fascination with and profound love of literature. The account of Captain Vancouver's voyage along this same passage, taken from many sources, while certainly the most superficially parallel and certainly the most discursively ongoing of the allusions, is not in the end, the most significant and profound. That award must surely go to Raban's recounting of Shelley's last days and ultimate demise in the chapter entitled "Charred Remains", striking a parallel, in a much more profound manner than those accounts of Vancouver's voyage, to the last days and death of Raban's father and to the unsurpassed final chapter in which he invokes Cowper's "The Cast-Away" as a metaphor for his crumbling marriage and his own mortality.
Perhaps one, like Raban, has to already have a love of and familiarity both these poets to see what a feat he has pulled of here - though Raban provides the basic biographical background for each. To stick with the last chapter---Cowper isn't a poet much read anymore. But he's always been one of my favourites. One really has to be familiar with his intensely unbalanced life and mind to fully appreciate his poetry. In any event, by this last chapter of the book, we know what it's like to walk in Raban's shoes, to be in his boat, to wander through his mind and heart and to know how much he loves his family. When the hammer falls at the end with his wife and daughter deplaning in Juneau, we feel how crushed he is by it. And Cowper's "The Cast-Away" is the perfect poetic expression of the way we feel he feels, drowned not by the "real" sea he's been traversing, but by Cowper's metaphoric sea of despair. I frequently return to Cowper's "The Task"-A poem given him as a sort of assignment to ward off one of his mental fits-as well as "The Cast-Away" as two of the greatest poems in the language. I NEVER thought I'd see a modern author apparently effortlessly bring the despair of the all but forgotten poet back to life, but......Raban does.
So, yes, readers looking for a "sea adventure" yarn had better look elsewhere. How to know if you will fancy the book? Do you love history, English literature, introspective depths? Above all, do you know the feeling of being drowned by despair? Can you relate to Cowper's couplet?
"But I, beneath a rougher sea,
And whelm'd in deeper gulfs than he."
In short, do you know that INNER Sea? If so, this book will not disappoint.
Drifting, not sailing.......2006-04-26
The author fails miserable to hold together the historical journey of Vancouver, his current plodding through the inside passage, and his personal family life. Drifting from one to the other I dreaded learning more of this egomaniacs personal life! If the 430 pages had been edited down to 100 dealing with the history of the area, told as he travels through it, it might be a winner. But alas it's not.
Book Description
This book contains step-step instructions and illustrations on the basics of drawing, designing, painting and carving in the Pacific Northwest Coast Native Indian art style.
Fifteen educationally based concepts are arranged from simple to complex, with each step building on the previous. Over 300 black and white detailed illustrations and 32 photos enhance and clarify the straightforward instructions. Durable soft cover, 8 1/2" by 11" black and white, 160 pages.
Customer Reviews:
Nice idea.......2007-09-20
This book contains a nice idea, though the designs in the book are not great examples of the art form. Someone wishing to learn how to design with formlines might be better off using an exhibit catalog such as Kwakiutl Art or maybe An Analysis of Form by Bill Holm. There are many subtleties in the art and this book makes a valiant attempt to describe the art form but in the end fails in terms of examples and description.
Classroom in-a-book.......2007-08-15
This book is definetly geared toward a classroom environment, consisting mostly of worksheets/quizzes on basic design elements. The excercises are also very basic, involving tracing dot-to-dots, filling in missing areas of a design, etc. While this would be great for elementary school/middle school kids, it isn't as useful for independent learners, though there are good tidbits of information here and there. Also note that this book (and the other two books in the series) do not deal with meaning at all - they are purely concerned with the technical aspect of the art.
In terms of the technical aspects of learning Pacific Northwest Coast art I highly recommend Clark & Gilbert's "Learning by Designing, vol. 1" and Bill Holm's "Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form".
Excellent material for artists and art lovers........2001-10-27
As an admirer of native art and a novice carver, I have found new appreciation for this beautiful art form. This book (and it's companion, Learning by Designing) have provided a means for me to advance my skills as well as become more familiar with some of the features making northwest native art geographically unique. It provides ample and readily usable information. After only a short time, I am applying design concepts to my own work. The two books complement each other very well, and I eagerly await the next volume.
I would like to recommend this book to anyone working with native art themes as well as those who appreciate or collect it.
Thank You for the wonderful material!
Excellent book on Northwest Coast art.......2001-04-11
While visiting the Northwest Coast of British Columbia we wanted to learn more about the art styles and methods of drawing NW Native Indian art. This book, along with Learning by Designing (from Raven Publishing) were our favourites. Because of its step by step methods and sample drawings we were able to easily re-create and paint our own authentic designs. We highly recommend these books.
Very interesting.......2000-10-26
This book is geared more toward an educational reference tool for elementary and high school teachers. However, it works just as well as a self-teaching guide for beginners. I look forward to trying some of the exercises myself.
Book Description
Art of the Northwest Coast is a comprehensive survey of the Native arts of the Pacific Northwest Coast, from Puget Sound to Alaska and from prehistoric times to the present. Incorporating the region's social history with the observations of anthropologists, historians of art, and Native peoples, this groundbreaking volume examines how the upheavals of European contact affected the development of a powerful traditional art. By exploring the distinct origins of each of the area's linguistic groups and their histories, mythologies, and art forms, art historian Aldona Jonaitis reveals how a complex web of factors informed these groups' varied responses to the changes and challenges brought about by contact with Europeans.
The post-contact period has often been considered a time of decline for Native artistic traditions and techniques, but Jonaitis convincingly argues against this assumption. The traditions were not lost, she asserts, but rather were expressed in different ways. Forms such as tourist art - made expressly for sale rather than for community use - were for some the only outlets available in the trying, repressive years when Natives were deprived of their land, rights, and essential cultural expressions. While art made for community use was often judged "inferior" in quality to nineteenth-century creations, it still expressed the strong aesthetics of a surviving Native culture.
Since the 1960s, Native artistic activity has flourished and is increasingly recognized as fine art rather than anthropological artifact. Repatriation of Native works of art from museums, a strong market for collectors and dealers, and a reaffirmation of traditional culture and heritage among Native communities all contribute to a vibrant field in which Native artists reflect their enduring cultures in works that explore many contemporary directions.
Compellingly written and beautifully illustrated, Art of the Northwest Coast is a cornerstone addition to any library and essential reading for anyone interested in the art of Native cultures.
Customer Reviews:
Art of the Northwest Coast.......2006-10-19
This book appears to be designed as a text book. Jonaitis is a professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks. Size (6 3/4 x 9 3/4) is right for a backpack. The print appears to have been shrunk to fit the book; size of type in descriptions of work is particularly tiny. The bibliography is in the form of a "Biographic Essay" rather than the usual list form and seems to be a schoolboy approach and makes finding a particular reference difficult. I found no reference listing other sources taking a historical or chronological approach, which would have been helpful. References to times of early pieces are in terms of BCA and CA, which appears to be some sort of scholastic approach preferred to BC and AD.
Amazon's description of the book notes that the book is against a an approach assuming a time of decline. Aldonis references "what is commonly called the `Northwest Coast renaissance," stating that the revival of the art in late 20th century was a continuation of the art and involved a number of artists. She, Steve Brown, and Robert Davidson have taken this position previously, which position is a reaction to the position that the renaissance or whatever is the product of one man, Bill Reid. There appears to be a real effort on the part of special interests supporting Reid to have him identified as the sole cause, which results in a distortion of the history of the art and should be addressed..
I have never heard Lalooska referred to as Lalooska Smith, rather than Lalooska or Don Smith. The book touches on migrations of forms of the art; I would like more. The "renaissance" is largely a phenomenon of increased demand for the art by non-Indians and a result of application of the Econ. 1, law of supply and demand. No one (including the Reid proponents) has addressed who buys or why they buy resulting in the current increase demand for the art. A real factor in today's market for the art is the internet. Sometime some historian should address its impact on demand. All in all a good book well priced.
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