Auburn artist shares love for Native American culture

Published 1:11 pm Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Alternating light and shadow pierce the patterns carved into the board, casting onto the wall against which it leans nested crescents and wedge triangles that gradually join and blend at the bottom, like the mists of a waterfall.

Drawing inspiration from the Puget Sound Salish sea area to the north, these pieces and others express a small part of local artist, educator and historian Greg Watson’s enduring love affair with Native American culture, blending what he admires so much with his own ideas.

And as of last Tuesday, all of the works are where anybody can see them, in the lobby of Auburn City Hall at 25 West Main St.

“It’s partly due just to love and admiration for the culture, but also because I’ve done a lot of work in Native American communities around here over the years,” Watson said. “I am influenced by things I admire. I’m not an Indian wannabe, but you can’t be as in love with something as I am with this culture and not be influenced by it.

“Even though these are not copies of any particular tradition — I mean, this here is a pretty serious Puget Sound Salish paddle, but you would never have seen anything so elaborately decorated in the old days — most of these are just, like, my interpretation,” Watson said.

As Watson was explaining his art, he and Maija McKnight, arts coordinator for the City of Auburn, were bustling about, putting the final touches to the collection of mounted clay forms, cedar plank figures, and one handmade, deer hide drum — his own.

“There’s something about paddles that are salmon shaped, and they are both in the water, so that’s what made me think about putting on the paddle. This canoe here, I guess you could say, has to do with the idea of canoes as living beings, living things,” Watson said.

“… This is about friends and communities that have made me welcome and things that I’ve seen that have taken my heart over the last 30 years or so,” Watson said, singling out his dear friend and inspiration, the late Vi Hilbert, an Upper Skagit Tribal elder and one of the pioneers in the revival of the native languages of the Puget Sound region, another of Watson’s many interests.

Watson met Hilbert in 1984 when he was working on his graduate degree in museum studies at the University of Washington.

“Somebody told me about this wonderful lady in Indian studies who taught about languages. I walked into her classroom and became a student of hers, and I’m still there,” Watson said.

For Watson, who teaches in the Auburn school system and is active on the Auburn Arts Commission, there is nothing like carving something wonderful from wood, something shaped by the strength and dexterity of his own hands, molded by an age-old instrument, summoning soul stuff.

Stopping to admire Watson’s work, a woman gave the exhibit its first grade.

“Awesome,” she said.

“Wow, never got an awesome before,” Watson said. “I’ll take awesome.”

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On display

• What: City Hall art exhibit, featuring the Native American culture works of Greg Watson, local artist, educator and historian

• Where: City Hall Gallery, 25 West Main St.