Bill Reid

"The Raven was significant to Reid, not only as a cultural hero of Haida mythology , but also for the ability to transform inanimate material into dynamic forms".

Artists and engineers have more in common than most people might think; both work with and transform materials to make their visions come to life. Where engineers use metal to build a bridge, artists use it to cast a statue; where engineers use ceramics to provide heat resistance to the Space Shuttle, artists use it for hand crafted vases; and, where engineers use wood to build house frames, artists use it to carve totem poles. Both the engineer and the artist must have a strong and well-developed sense of the materials with which they work in order for their visions to emerge.

Bill Reid (1920-1998) is one of Canada's best known artists. He was born in Victoria, BC in 1920 and knew very little about his Haida heritage (his mother was Haida) until he was an adult. He actually started his career as a radio broadcaster, and even worked for the CBC in Toronto for 10 years. It was there that Mr. Reid learned how to work with gold and silver for making jewellery. He was following a family tradition as his grandfather was Charles Gladstone, a Haida carver and silversmith. It was also in Toronto that Mr. Reid got his first real exposure to Northwest Coast art at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Upon returning to Vancouver in 1951, Mr. Reid's interest and exposure to Haida art and designs deepened, and he began using Haida images in his jewellery. In 1958, he joined a project at the University of British Columbia to restore Haida wood carvings, including a number of totem poles, from a village on the islands of Haida Gwaii. By working at first with Kwakwaka'wakw master carver Mungo Martin and then through careful study of the poles he was helping to restore, Mr. Reid developed his understanding of the Haida visual language and his mastery of wood carving. He thought of wood carving as, "an exercise in peeling away the outer layers to see what comes out." The poles he worked on still stand outside the UBC Museum of Anthropology.

As his talents developed, Mr.Reid began using other materials such as including bronze, plaster, jade, and silk in his work. By using non-traditional materials - mainly for their look, strength and quality - to depict traditional Haida figures and stories he created art that was "at once rooted in tradition yet new." Mr. Reid supported his family by making jewellery and silk screen prints, but he is best known for his large sculptures including the wood carving Raven and First Man (UBC Museum of Anthropology), and the bronze cast The Spirit of Haida Gwaii (Canadian Embassy, Washington, DC). Mr. Reid suffered from Parkinson's Disease for more than 25 years before his death in 1998. The shaking and muscle tremors of the disease often made it difficult for him to work for more than 5 minutes at a time, and yet, he completed some of his greatest works in the latter part of his life. As his biography at the Canadian Museum of civilization says, "Above all, he sought to show, by example, the importance of aspiring to high standards"