 "Photo: Susan Point")
Salish Hall will have a magnificent piece of artwork going up on one of its walls courtesy of Salish artist Susan Point.
The art committee chose Point from a list of artists that was provided and approved by the Washington State Arts Commission. The art committee unanimously decided on hiring a Native American artist to create the artwork for the Salish Hall.
On that list of several hundred, only about five were Native American. The next step came down to just finding out who was available and whose artwork the committee liked. After spending a day looking at different pieces from the Native American artists, the committee voted for Point.
"Salish" is a term used to describe Native Americans of several different tribes from southeast Vancouver Island and lower British Columbia. Four tribes make up the Salish: Halkomelem, Straits Salish, Squamish and Nooksack.
Point began her career as an artist in 1981 engraving Salish bracelets, rings, pendants, earrings and barrettes.
She chose to focus on Salish designs and investigated traditional Salish art forms, like the Spindle Whorl, an elaborately carved wooden disk that was used in the spinning of wool.
Point's first print, "Salmon", was inspired by the designs of Spindle Whorls. According to Sam Ball, art committee chair and director of capital projects, Point's work was featured in the 2009 Winter Olympics.
Point has started her piece and could only describe her "work in progress" with this artist statement:
"It will be a large scale public art piece, totemic in nature. It is based on the natural surroundings of the college. The college is integrated into a forest environment and I wanted to carry that theme through into the artwork. Much of my work is based on how all things are connected in this universe. The piece itself is symbolic of a tree, with the vertical cedar pieces representing the trunk and the horizontal canvases representing the foliage. The forest imagery is a visual metaphor, woven together through a series of gently shaped panels, mimicking the form of Salish basketry. The materials mesh an indigenous artistic medium (carved cedar) with a traditional fine art medium (paint on canvas), a visual expression of the connections between all forms of life. There is also a "land, sea, sky" theme in the artwork, with imagery of birds at the top, human forms in the middle and fish at the bottom."
is a member of the 
Be the first to comment on this article!