When people find out that I paint and invariably ask what type of art I do, I always struggle to clearly define my style in “50 words or less”. I think it is because I do not follow the more common styles of contemporary painting. I do not do landscapes, portraits, or other well-known genres. Nor do I paint in oils, watercolors, or pastels, or such methods that would give them a chance to visualize what my paintings might look like. I usually just say I paint with acrylics on cedar, but this doesn’t really describe my style or the vision behind my art. I would like to think of myself as a cultural artist and one who seeks to support tradition.
One of the things that I acquired from my degree work in Anthropology was an appreciation for the values and traditions of cultures, including my own and others. As a second-generation American, I fell victim to the “melting-pot” of American culture (a modified form of Northern European cultural traits and values) so that much of my Italian cultural traditions were greatly reduced mainly due to not ever having learned to speak the language. I’m not Italian, but I am an Italian-American and am proud of my ancestry. However, maybe due to my Anthropology background or maybe just because of how I have viewed the world from the start, I never felt compelled to focus solely on my Italian-ness. We still try to cook the traditional foods, especially during Christmas and Easter, and use the odd Italian word or phrase, but so much has been lost. Going to visit family in Italy in the 1970s really emphasized how little of Italian culture remained in me—again due to the fact I didn’t speak Italian. And no, just speaking English with an Italian accent or saying “mama mia” didn’t count.
I think moving to Neah Bay in 1980 and experiencing Makah culture firsthand was really a personal awakening for me in terms of ongoing cultural tradition. For at least 100 years beforehand, Makahs had experienced vast social, cultural, and economic changes due to the pressures from outside, non-Native cultures (for an insightful discourse on Makah culture and history, I strongly recommend Joshua L. Reid, The Sea is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs, ©2015). However, partly due to their relative isolation at the western tip of the Olympic Peninsula, but mostly due to a strong and vibrant cultural foundation, Makahs were able to (and still continue to ) maintain their sense of value and tradition in the face of those changes. I was so impressed with the strong sense of culture and tradition and felt so privileged to have had the chance to experience it firsthand. I have a deep appreciation for the Makah as they are a people who place great value on maintaining their culture, traditions, and identity. This in no way means they are static, unchanging, or living in a past which no longer exists. Makahs have been able to adapt to an ever-changing world yet still tightly hold on to those values and traditions essential to maintaining their cultural identity.
One of the things that I acquired from my degree work in Anthropology was an appreciation for the values and traditions of cultures, including my own and others. As a second-generation American, I fell victim to the “melting-pot” of American culture (a modified form of Northern European cultural traits and values) so that much of my Italian cultural traditions were greatly reduced mainly due to not ever having learned to speak the language. I’m not Italian, but I am an Italian-American and am proud of my ancestry. However, maybe due to my Anthropology background or maybe just because of how I have viewed the world from the start, I never felt compelled to focus solely on my Italian-ness. We still try to cook the traditional foods, especially during Christmas and Easter, and use the odd Italian word or phrase, but so much has been lost. Going to visit family in Italy in the 1970s really emphasized how little of Italian culture remained in me—again due to the fact I didn’t speak Italian. And no, just speaking English with an Italian accent or saying “mama mia” didn’t count.
I think moving to Neah Bay in 1980 and experiencing Makah culture firsthand was really a personal awakening for me in terms of ongoing cultural tradition. For at least 100 years beforehand, Makahs had experienced vast social, cultural, and economic changes due to the pressures from outside, non-Native cultures (for an insightful discourse on Makah culture and history, I strongly recommend Joshua L. Reid, The Sea is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs, ©2015). However, partly due to their relative isolation at the western tip of the Olympic Peninsula, but mostly due to a strong and vibrant cultural foundation, Makahs were able to (and still continue to ) maintain their sense of value and tradition in the face of those changes. I was so impressed with the strong sense of culture and tradition and felt so privileged to have had the chance to experience it firsthand. I have a deep appreciation for the Makah as they are a people who place great value on maintaining their culture, traditions, and identity. This in no way means they are static, unchanging, or living in a past which no longer exists. Makahs have been able to adapt to an ever-changing world yet still tightly hold on to those values and traditions essential to maintaining their cultural identity.
Kids dancing at Makah Days in Neah Bay
Tradition plays a very important role in the evolution of culture. Change is inevitable but tradition helps us hold on to those values, beliefs, and materials which are most important and definitive as to who we are---our sense of cultural or group identity. At the same time, tradition does not hold-back or limit change, especially when innovation or creativity produces something that (hopefully) improves our lives. An example of this occurred back in the 1980s. While some of the Makah carvers were preparing cedar logs in preparation for the canoes which were to go on display at the Makah Cultural and Research Center (MCRC), they used chain saws in the preliminary stages to help create the general shape. Tourists observing their work chided them saying that was not very traditional and that their ancestors would have been displeased with their efforts. The carvers just shrugged them off saying if their grandfathers had had chainsaws at the time, they surely would have used them because not only did it make the work go faster, also there was less waste of cedar from the process. Later still, Makah carvers started to make cedar strip canoes to make the precious cedar go even further. One thing remained in common along this long line of canoe building and that was the overall design. They all followed the “traditional” design of a Makah/nuu-chah-nulth ocean-going canoe. This really shows the effect of tradition on technological innovation. Through trial and error and possibly over a long period of time, carvers produced a canoe design which was perfectly adapted for use on coastal and oceanic waters. Tradition was the mechanism that protected that design from unnecessary change (no change for change’s sake here, no re-design to help sell more canoes like todays marketing strategies would promote). Tradition is not anti-change but rather a guiding hand to regulate how severe and how fast change occurs.
 Canoes in the MCRC at Neah Bay |  Cedar strip canoe being built in Neah Bay |
The importance of maintaining tradition is also clearly seen in Japanese culture. Over time the Japanese people have been able to maintain and highly value tradition while at the same time incorporate outside influences. Most importantly, they have been able to do this in such a way as to make the resulting changes essentially Japanese. During the Asuka, Nara, and Heian Periods, Japan was able to blend traditions, styles, and technologies from India, China, and Korea into its pre-existing cultural traditions and values. Later, during the Meiji Period, similar cultural change took place, although this time incorporating influences from Western nations, which created vast changes over a very short period of time. However Japan, with its abundance of local and national festivities centered on Buddhism and Shintoism, and with its reverence for craftsmanship, was able to maintain many of its traditions and values. Japan’s program of identifying its “Living National Treasures”, those individuals certified as “preserving important intangible cultural properties” demonstrates the value placed on maintaining traditions. This applies to both the performing arts as well as crafts including ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, and other crafts essential to keeping cultural traditions alive.
 Keisuke Serizawa |  Sōetsu Yanagi, Bernard Leach & Shoji Hamada |
This all leads me back to my self-proclaimed style of cultural art. I am in constant search for inspiration and the natural world around me provides an unlimited source of subject matter. However, the interpretation of that and its communication through my paintings have led me to incorporate the traditions and works of artists and crafts persons from cultures to which I feel I have a strong personal bond and interest. I may not share ethnicity or genetics with those cultures, but to me they are more closely tied to my vision of the world, and thus they act to inspire. Elizabeth Cumming wrote about Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s view on tradition in art taken from his lecture on “Seemliness” (Elizabeth Cumming, Hand, Heart and Soul: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland (©2006), page 38.) She writes “In 1902 Mackintosh referred to the importance of tradition to the artist, not by ‘feebly imating (sic) some of the visible and superficial features of beautiful old works’ but respecting ‘the spirit the intention the soul that lies beneath’.” I hope to strive always to respect this “spirit” which resides in the heart of tradition, regardless of the culture from which it derives.
Shadow of the Ancestors (Winter 2016)
RSS Feed