Joe David was born in 1946 at the traditional Tla-O-Qui-Aht village of Opitsaht on Meares Island, off the west coast of Vancouver Island. He now calls another Tla-O-Qui-Aht village, Echachisht, his home.
David comes from a traditional family of whalers and carvers. His primary instruction came from his father and his uncles. He received formal training from, and was influenced by, artists Bill Holm and Duane Pasco. He has also had training in fine arts and commercial arts. His exhibits and projects are well known throughout B.C. and across Canada.
Twenty-some years ago, after art school, David was active in modern and classical drawing and painting. When he decided to study and master the traditional arts of his culture, he put aside all other art forms.
Recently, David felt that he had mastered his traditional art and again picked up pencil and paints to resume modern classical expressions.
Pook-Miss 30/75
Joe David
Copper plate etching
41 x 33 cm.
Value: $215.00
Rental per month: $5.00
The Pook-Miss mask was used to represent the chief whalers of the Nuu-Cha-Nulth Nation on the west coast of Vancouver Island and their close relatives, the Makah Nation, at the north-western tip of Washington State.
Pook-Miss represented chief whalers who were lost at sea, or those who were lost at sea but made it back to land. These whalers were considered a special group because, from the trauma of their experiences, they lost all sense of family and civilization.
The objects and animals illustrated alongside the mask, such as the moon and the wolf, are representative of the Nuu-Cha-Nulth and their whaling tradition.