EveGriffinArtWork

During the summer of 2008, I had the great privilege of working with master printmaker Christopher Nowicki to produce a screen print. I decided to use for my print a subject that is very important to us here on the northwest coast, especially after a long, dark winter: the harbinger of spring and seeming foundation of our maritime world, the Pacific herring.

 

Schools of these Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) arrive in mid-March to lay their eggs in the shallows, often on seaweed. They are closely followed by all kinds of other creatures looking for an easy feast, including sea lions, seals, seabirds, and humans. Their eggs are prized all over the world, but perhaps no one holds them in higher esteem than do the coast’s First Nations peoples. These people have always harvested herring eggs carefully, often by immersing hemlock tree branches for the fish to attach their eggs on. This is more than can be said for the commercial roe herring fishery, which is probably a factor in the recent, precipitous decline in herring populations. So important is the little herring to the life of the ocean and Native subsistence that it has become a symbol of nothing less than national sovereignty and cultural survival.

 

When out at sea, herring school at depth during the day, away from predators. This design was inspired by the fact that they rise to the surface at night to feed. The moon in the night sky is shown as a face with a hand in red, at center. I am often asked why the moon is covering its mouth with its hand. I did this as a way of indicating that the moon seems silent to me. The stylized figure of the herring is derived from a painted motif found on a wooden box drum collected from the Haida in the nineteenth century, now in the Field Museum, Chicago. The seaweed and egg design acknowledges the continuing importance of this traditional food to northwest coast First Nations peoples.

 

Christopher Nowicki is a master printmaker of international standing. He has collaborated with many artists along the northwest coast, from Washington to Alaska, providing them the opportunity to produce top quality, handmade screen prints. His work is preferred by many artists working in this tradition for his understanding of northwest coast formline design and his unsurpassed craftsmanship. Although born in Ohio and educated there and in Seattle, he is currently Doctor of Printmaking at the prestigious Academy of Fine Art in Wroclaw, Poland.

 

Mr. Nowicki produced this print in the studios of Alaska Indian Arts, Inc., of Haines, Alaska. Haines is only 13 miles away from Skagway as the crow flies, or an hour’s ferry ride, or a one-to-three-days’ drive in summer. The Haines area has always been a main population center for the Lingit people.  Lingit arts and culture continue to flourish there, and since the 1950’s, Alaska Indian Arts had played a major role in that continuance

A neat thing about this print is an unexpected optical illusion that often occurs: the red moon in the center recedes behind the blue herring/seaweed border to such an extent that you would swear that you’re looking at a three-dimensional shadow box that’s lit from within. The red moon looks like it is positioned about 2 inches behind the blue border, with incandescent light bulbs hidden “off stage.”