Rick Wolcott: Raven's Tales

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Rick Wolcott, "Underwater Raven," 2020

woodcarving with acrylic, shell and fur, 4" x 4" x 18”

In Raven’s Tales, Rick Wolcott gifts us with four tales featuring the ever-charismatic Raven. A trickster and teacher, each carving shares a different aspect of Raven and his influence on the world.

Through carefully carved compositions, Rick Wolcott references characters and events from stories he has learned over a lifetime, never sharing the same story in the same way twice.

Wolcott has dedicated his life to Westcoast Indigenous Carving and storytelling. Representing a range of traditions and styles (from Northern Formline to Salish), his artworks are inseparable from the ancient stories that they reference.

According to family legend, Rick began carving around the age of 4 or 5, when he used a stray pocketknife and some unattended wood to carve a small figure sitting in a canoe. His grandfather, a noted carver from Nehalem Tillamook on the Oregon coast, was his first teacher. Rick spent his summers travelling up and down the West Coast with his grandfather. Together they visited a wide range of Indigenous communities, learning the traditions and styles of both carving and storytelling.

The works Raven’s Tales are accompanied by a series of video recordings, allowing the audience to see and hear Rick Wolcott tell the stories that ground each of the pieces. For Wolcott, carving is a vehicle for sharing and celebrating stories. With delicate undulating lines and intricate details, he inspires the imagination.

Events: Virtual tours with curator - February 23 and March 16, at noon.