A lifetime of studying dimension, perspective, and art has culminated in Dempsey Bob's living legacy of pieces - with sculptures and artworks finding forever homes both locally and in galleries and private collections across the globe.
Recently, Bob has created a collection that's close to home - which honors his family's legacy.
The show is called Salmon: Cannery Days, and Dempsey Bob says it's because he grew up in and around the cannery at Port Edward,
"And I'd been doing pieces with the theme of salmon. Because the salmon was central to our culture. It gave us time to carve, to do our art."
Bob says he realized that he was a part of the last "Cannery Generation", as he puts it; people that lived, worked and went to school there.
"What I wanted to do with the show was honour our ancestors that were cannery workers and fishermen. Because my dad worked at the cannery, my grandfather, my whole family, brothers, sisters. I worked there, we all worked there. Yeah, it's very close to me because this is part of my heritage. Our people, First Nations, have worked in the canneries for over 120 years"
Bob says he also realized how significant the canneries were because out of that Port Edward/Nelson Brothers Cannery community came many artists, including Freda Diesing, Dale Campbell, Don Yeomans, and Mitchell Morrison, to name only a few. Diesing played a significant role in Bob's life, and he said he's not sure where he'd be if he hadn't met Freda.
"So we counted. Almost the whole revival of the North, of the Northwest Coast Art came out of there, which, that's really significant because, you know, it was a melting pot of nations. You know, like there was Japanese, there was Chinese, you know, and also there was Haidas, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Gitxsan, Nisga'as, you know, Salish, there were Carriers, there were all different nations of our people. And what was really good about that time was that our culture was still strong, and we shared and helped each other, and we all had a job and we worked.
It was, most people that I talked to, they said it was the best times of their lives, you know, working together. Because that was it, you know, they had a job and it was good. Everybody worked. I was lucky, and I was part of it, made it. And so I wanted to express that. I wanted to express that to people, you know? And plus, I just want to make a statement about the salmon. We're getting less and less salmon. And it's really scary now."
Bob says returning to the cannery brings back a lot of memories.
"It's a part of my life, it's a part of my heritage, and that's what I'm showing. And that's what an artist does. A real artist. That's what I thought about, when I did that."
"Salmon: Cannery Days" runs through the end of September at the North Pacific Cannery National Historic Site in Port Edward.
