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Elizabeth Filipovits sanding a piece of cedar art for Alfred Robertson in Nanaimo, B.C. |
The immense distance between the two coasts of North America is quite a flight as the crow flies, and the First Nations made a comfortable home of it for a few thousand of years. Elizabeth Filipovits, 37, is a travelling artist from an eastern First Nation called Lennox Island, which is located on the north shore of Prince Edward Island in a place called Malpeque Bay.
"I'm a Lennox Island Miqmaq," she said. Lennox Island's Indian Reserve makes an interesting view on Google Earth. You cannot go further east in Canada outside of Newfoundland. But it lies at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, which makes it practically the point of ancient histories of all types meeting head-on.
Lennox Island First Nation has a population around 250 residents who live on a 520-hectare reserve approximately 50 km northwest of Summerside, Prince Edward Island. Elizabeth said the possession of her Native language escaped her growing up.
"I don't speak my Miqmaq but my grandmother is 86 and she still toddles around Lennox Island speaking it. She's this short little Native lady, stands 4'8", still drinks, still smokes, still moves around like a 50 year old. She's still sharp as a tack." None of that Alzheimer's or other difficulties for her grandma, said Elizabeth.
Elizabeth grew up and went to school in Mississauga, Ontario, including post-secondary. Then she kind of followed the road propelled by her artistic sensibilities. She went west when she was 18 and landed in Whistler, B.C. where she worked for a couple of years.
When she caught a whiff of something else she went here and there, "Vancouver, Cranbrook, Kelowna, Calgary, Medicine Hat," and she laughs, "the list goes on," and that's not including travel, the course of which appears to have no end.
All along the route she has been creating an impressive skill-set in the world of art. "I've always been into artistic things. As a kid I was always into drawing. As a teenager I learned to play guitar and make jewellery. As an adult I learned various other art forms."
Elizabeth writes poetry and short stories, and she explained, "and I have 58 pages done on a novel." The carving began in soapstone after she watched Soapstone Jeff carve in Victoria, B.C.. "I've been carving for the past five years. I learned from my friend Soapstone Jeff, he's a Native guy."
After she first met him in Victoria they met again in Nanaimo. "He's a Coastal. He works in soapstone. He carves in public places on nice days in Victoria, Nanaimo, and Saltspring Island." She took to stone carving instantly, "He gave me a piece of stone and I started carving a sleeping turtle," and now, "I am the only one who does grizzly bear carvings like him."
She is a year into the work with cedar art forms. She does plaques and she is carving with instructions from master carver Jackson Robertson. She says she feels very comfortable working in cedar sculpture with these west coast images. She doesn't mind saying, "I'm carving because I'm 3/4 Native," she laughs.
Elizabeth first put the knife to the wood under Jackson's tutelage about a year ago. The west coast mythologies are based in animal stories, and her first carving was done merely one year ago. "My first wood carving was a raven. He's the trickster -- sees past, present and future. Got to watch out for the raven."
Jackson Robertson is from Kingcome Inlet and Jackson has been known to mentor several carvers at a time, and he and brother Alfred are continuously arranging facilities for the practice of
wood carving, and now they are teaching wood carving to groups.
Some carvers thrive in the group environment, and it is the best, the only way to learn. The Robertson's carving studio in Nanaimo is located at The China Steps in the downtown district near the harbour.
"I met Jackson a year ago and started to do little stuff, pendants, earrings out of cedar. I came back in December 2008 and started doing plaques," and bigger things. She noted, "Jackson is pushing me to carve. He says I have what it takes."
This kind of encouragement is valuable to Elizabeth and also rare where she comes from, "On the east coast it's not much available out there. There are no Native people selling their art in bars or craft shows," or on harbour fronts at tourist sites.
"I was in St. John, New Brunswick for awhile this fall and my Native art was not a big seller." Things are dramatically different out west. "I am carving an inventory for the spring and summer to sell to tourists. I'm carving different pieces like masks and talking sticks."
She sells the imaginative cedar wood carvings on the harbour front along with other artists who set up on the pleasant walkway on the nice days year round. Elizabeth is always considering learning opportunities too, and sometimes those call for a departure.
She is intrigued by opportunities in Nanaimo and Victoria at present, however. Jackson Robertson lives and carves in Nanaimo with his brother, his step-son Satchia, and other Coastal artists so Elizabeth decided to rent a little one-room house in the south end of the city and will stay around for a spell. You can reach Elizabeth at winterhawk@yahoo.ca
