The paint is black and red.

The paint is red.

The paint is red, blue, gray, and black.

The paint is blue, black, and red.

The wood is cedar. The paint is red, black, and white.

The renowned Kwakwaka'wakw artist Mungo Martin identified this transformation mask as his own work. It was made for a chief named Lagius, probably around 1920. The style of carving and painting are recognizable as that of Mungo Martin or his stepfather and mentor Charley James. Although the mask is called Crane in the museum records, the gray color and the hunched attitude when folded are reminiscent of the great blue heron, a bird common to the Kwakwaka'wakw country and often miscalled crane in English. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

This bentwood bowl has high ends and low sides that imitate the shape of a carved oil dish. The formlines painted on the surface are in a freer style than those of nothern artists (compare the bentwood box to the right).

The paint is white, red, and black.

Galokwudzuis, Crooked Beak of the Sky, is one of a household of monster birds and creatures, associates of the Man-eater Bahkwbakwalanooksiwey, the motivator of the major dances of the Tseyka, the winter ceremonial of the Kwakwaka'wakw. Of these dances, the first is the Hamatsa, impersonator of Man-eater himself. The Tseyka dances come from ancestors' fabled experiences with the creatures of the supernatural world, and the public dramatizations of those encounters are among the most prestigious ceremonial acts. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

This Sculpin mask epitomizes the flamboyance of Kwakwaka'wakw theatrical sculpture. Jagged contours, bold, intertwined forms, and snapping, fanning, and waving appendages--all covered with contrasting and complex patterns of strong color--create creatures of startling fantasy. The subdued, wavering light of the dance house softens those contrasts amd unifies the forms. The sculpin swims to the rise and fall of its song in a sea of firelight and swirling eagle down. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)