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 pink bookmark. The front-side of the bookmark is an image of a vertically oriented killer whale hand-drawn in black ink. The whale's head is positioned in the centre of the bookmark; the eye of the whale is centred in a large elongated oval. Triangular teeth line both the upper and lower jaw of the whale. An exaggerated blowhole, decorated with an inverted human(?) face, is drawn at the top of whale's head; a stream of air, three dashes wide, exits the blowhole producing a swirl at the top of the bookmark. An enlarged dorsal fin extends from the centre to the top of the bookmark. The pectoral fin is decorated with a solid black circle enclosed by two uncoloured circles, a tower-shape, and an oval with two intersecting lines surrounded by a larger oval. The tail flukes are both decorated with an oval with two intersecting lines surrounded by a larger oval. The reverse-side of the bookmark is machine-printed in black ink. The bookstore's name, "The Worm," is printed at the top, below is a quote by Aldous Huxley, the store's book specialities, and at the very bottom is the store's address and phone number.