Indigenous Arts & Stories - Wolf and Moon

My name is Stephanie Anderson, I am from the Laksilyu “Small frog” clan, Kwen Beegh Yex “House beside the fire” of the Wet’suwet’en nation. I have been creating artistic works since a young age, and creativity has been the forefront theme of my life. I take care with my artwork to and try to achieve a fine finish as I complete them. I have taken many steps to better myself as a wet’suwet’en woman and artist over the years including an active cultural participation and enrolling in fine arts programs. My strength comes from my T’so “Grandma” Violet Gellenbeck, who has worked in the Witset community for most of her life. She is a hereditary clan chief, has co-written historic non-fiction books on wet’suwet’en history and culture, worked tirelessly to record verbal history handed down over time immemorial, and engaged our nation in the revival of our traditional language. She has the strength that runs through my veins, our community, and our mothers before her.

This piece is carved on a laminated panel that I created in the summer of 2018 from raw boards of yellow cedar. I sourced this material 5kms up the highway from my residence in Terrace, BC. I machined and fitted these pieces and joined them together with glue and clamps. I then designed this panel as a 2D drawing and traced it on, then gradually removed layers of cedar to create different depths using gouges, chisels, and traditional Adze's. After creating the different depths I worked to create shape and expression in the figures. This is all hand carved and knife finished. Knife finishing is creating a finished smooth surface without the use of sand paper. It takes a great deal of time to complete and was done using traditional bent knifes I created myself.