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 an off-white coloured bookmark. The front-side is a hand-drawn image of a killer whale positioned vertically with it's head at the bottom and it's tail at the top of the bookmark. The whale's eye is enclosed by a diamond, and an oval with a crisscross pattern. Air exits from a blowhole. The outline of the whale's body is heavily shaded in with pencil; drawn in the open interior space of the whale's body are two ovals with two intersecting lines and two small creatures. A small dorsal fin is drawn on the whale's lower back. The pectoral fin is decorated with four open circles. The whale's tail is a wide U-shape and is decorated with abstract designs and a crisscross pattern. The reverse-side of the bookmark is machine-printed in blue ink. The bookstore's logo, comprised of the store's name, "The Book Guild of Portsmouth," an image of sunrays, a building and a sail boat, is at the top of the bookmark. Their commercial information is printed below.