Drawing

These 62 small works (3223/1-62) comprise a collection of drawings in pencil, ink, pencil crayon, and felt pen made by the artist between the years 1968 and 2015. During that period the artist has identified himself by the following names: Ron Hamilton; Hupquatchew; Ki-ke-in; Kwayatsapalth; Chuuchkamalthnii; and Haa’yuups. The drawings are, for the most part, applied to the backs of bookmarks acquired from a range of bookshops; some are applied to other pieces of paper or cutouts from his earlier silkscreen prints. Many of the images represent killer whales, often in conjunction with accoutrements and symbols of Nuu-chah-nulth whaling. The juxtaposition of bookmark and representation of Nuu-chah-nulth himwits’a, or narrative, is a deliberate and meaningful placement of two distinct knowledge systems in relationship with one another. Ephemeral drawings like these were not created for the market; the artist has long made them for himself and sometimes as gifts for relatives and friends; they are a way of sharing his knowledge and experience about Nuu-chah-nulth ways of knowing, thinking about, and being in this world; they are expressive of what he calls kiitskiitsa: marks made with intention.

A drawing on a bookmark. The front-side of the bookmark is a hand-drawn, vertically oriented image of a killer whale set against a white background. At the top of the bookmark, two small circles are cut from the paper. The killer whale's head is decorated with a green eye patch within which is a red diamond, a red and white ovoid, and the whale's eye. Red teeth line the mouth of the killer whale. The dorsal fin extends from the killer whale's head up towards the left circle cutout; it is decorated with a red and black ovoid, a red arch, and a black and white tower-shape. Air from the killer whale's blowhole, drawn as green dashes, streams in an arch around the dorsal fin to the right edge of the bookmark. Beneath the head, the pectoral fin is decorated with a white oval and a red cross. The body of the whale is a thin black oblong-shape with three white ovals. At the end of the body is the whale's tail outlined in black and decorated with red and black lines and ovals. The reverse-side of the bookmark is a machine printed image of a cartoon horse holding two books. Above the horse are the words "MAKE FRIENDS WITH BOOKS," in orange-red print. The artist appears to have drawn a skull and crossbones on the horse's hat, an eye patch over it's left eye, an anchor on the right arm, and a hook on it's left hoof.