Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC, Canada
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
email alcheringa
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 John Marston
Coast Salish
John Marston (b. 1978) has had the great advantage throughout his whole life of being surrounded by many skilled artists. It has been a great honour for him to watch and learn from those people. John first started carving at the age of eight. In earlier years, his parents and Simon Charlie surrounded John, they taught him carving and the legends of the Coast Salish people.
Slowly over the last fifteen years, John started to develop his own style of carving. John's primary focus is taking modern shapes, lifelike features, and adding traditional Salish designs, always trying to bring the figures to life. Every piece that he creates becomes a journey. The journey starts with the legends, stories and the history, then ends up as a creation of heart-felt meaning and displayable art. Every piece always has special expression and purpose to John.
John has become involved in research in the archives trying to find old Coast Salish images. With these images John has taken the basic designs of his ancestors and adapted them to his art style. The legends that he has learned and read were used to create totem poles, talking sticks, masks, and other creations from the Coast Salish art world.
More recently, John has had the opportunity to work with artists such as Wayne Young (Haida/Nisga'a), Simon Charlie (Coast Salish), Shawn Karpes (Kwakwaka'wakw), and Noel Brown (Coast Salish), all master carvers.
In the spring of 2006 John had the opportunity to travel to Papua New Guinea, where he met and carved with Teddy Balangu in Palembei Village. Teddy subsequently came to Canada as artist in residence at the Museum of Anthropology, in Vancouver. Both carvers were featured in an hour long documentary
entltled 'Killerwhale and Crocodile'.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2000 Tribal Miniatures '00, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2001 Tribal Miniatures '01, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
Emergence, House of First Voices, Victoria, BC
2002 Tribal Miniatures X, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2003 In Celebration of the Feast, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
The Shaman's Gift, Inuit Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2003 The Storytellers, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2004 Awakening: A Salish Gathering, Stonington Gallery, Seattle, WA
2004 Tribal Adornments, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2005 SHINE: Adornments of the Northwest Coast, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2005 Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 2, Museum of Art & Design, New York, NY, USA
2006 The Journey By Canoe, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2006 Rhythms of the Garamut, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2007 Transporters: Tradition and Innovation, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC
2007 Gathered Treasures, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, B.C.
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