March 14, 1986 page 9 Fair deal on the North Shore Upon leaving the SeaBus on the North Vancouver side chance may guide your steps to the right, past the ticket machines, past the smoke shop where upon you'll find yourself in front of the North American Native Arts Gallery, a bright pleasant looking shop that at first glance is unimpress- ive...then you notice the monster in the window: a particular monster, one that’s legendary both to natives and the relative new comers to North America alike, Sasquatch. Of course, you can’t resist entering. Lucky you, you’re in for a treat. | had a talk with Sally Collins, partner in this unique gallery with her brother Joe, and Percy Poull, an elder with the Squamish nation, who weren’t there. When | spoke to Sally and her daughter Shenna they were both friendly and happy, so with no further delay we got right to it... ‘‘Why don’t you ask me the ques- as Sally suggested. Agreeably | 1a: Me: About what time did you start operations? Sally: We opened up December 15th. Me: You deal in native art but you do have some work—specifically the T.J. Burnes etchings which are not done by a native artist. Sally: But they are native art!! Me: We were talking about a prison deal you were working on. Sally: The prison has some really good carvers who need an outlet for their work, and we’ve been approach- ing them to get some of their work on consignment. We’ve been to Mission and Matsqui, and we are ultimately going to Mountain prison. They were happy to see us at Ferndale. They were able to get a pass for some of the fellows so they could come to the shop. We’ve sent some papers at our own expense to the boys in Mission to do some silk screening for us of some cards of an Indian chief’s head. They . want to produce these to finance their own drug and alcohol treatment cen- tres, and are willing to support them in that way so they can get their own material. We sent them two hundred dollars worth of paper to do their cards on. We’ll market them so that they get their treatment centres. We also want to make sure that the guys get educated so they don’t get put back in there. NORTH AMERICAN Me: So they’ve got some kind of background when they get out. What is the most expensive piece you’ ve got here? Sally: The Sasquatch is priced at $3,000. Me: You’ve received a lot of requests to make a post card out of it, haven’t you? Sally: Yes, we’ve shown it to a lot of people who think we should go ahead with it. Unfortunately, the cash flow isn’t that great at the moment. We’ve also got some wonderful galley proofs of Greg Bird’s work. He was actually working in the shop for a while. Hopefully we’ll get some pos- ters and cards from him as well. Me: I’d better get some of your artist’s names down too. You men- tioned Greg Bird? Sally: Yes, we have work by Greg Bird, an Ojibwa woodland painter from North Ontario. We have origin- als and limited edition prints by John Laford. We have Norma Nahanee from the Squamish nation doing pottery. We have work by Mike Whiteloon and carvings by Craig Voisen who did the Sasquatch, as well as all this. We have jewelery, beading and the moc- casins which come from a native run factory called The Stollo/Bigfoot com- pany. Me: One thing | think our readers would be interested:in is how a native artist would get work into your store? Sally: of mouth, and Percy has some good contacts. He knows a lot of artists, and | work for two native organiza- tions, and there | met artists and listened to them. That all probably got started here actually. We thought we would like to give the artists a better break than the places where they were getting ripped off—like tourist traps in Gastown. So we though we would provide a shop which would be good to both the artist and buyer. Me: It’s a beautiful shop and really far above your average tourist trap where you might find some beautiful piece of artwork next to a massed produced toy. This place is really pro- fessional. Shenna: Also, we try to help the new artists. | mean, you can tell some of this stuff is by people who are new at it. TIVE ARTS CENTRE Right now it’s mostly by word - atk tae ents ee OMe ee coy PR fford Aln eee: Sally: Yes. For instance, over there we have an early work by Roy Joseph, who is now a very famous artist. Now Norman Tate, who is a professor of native art at UBC can be an outlet for the young artist coming out of UBC. Me: So basically you’r trying to pro- vide a competitive alternative to the tourist trap? Sally: Yes, exactly. We only get 30 percent profit on consignment from a piece of work, while most other artist places would get about 60 percent. RAVEN AND MOON by DON YEOMANS. HAIDA ARTIST COURTESY OF POTLATCH ARTS LTD.. VANCOUVER We're trying to support them. Shenna: We’re trying to help them as well as ourselves. é Me: You have an excellent location. Sally: It’s a terrific location. We are not making a profit now, and are saving our advertising dollar for when the market opens. With cash flow the way it is, we cannot afford a lot of promotion, but when the market opens will be the best time to advertise. We're trying to provide the best deal to artists and art buyers. douglas college presents CONTEMPORARY NORTHWEST COAST INDIAN ART COURTESY OF POTLATCH ARTS LTD. VANCOUVER MARCH 4 - 27, 1986 SOCIAL SCIENCE DISPLAY ROOM. #3417 MONDAY THRU FRIDAY 9:00 A.M. TO 4:00 P.M. TUESDAY ONLY 9:00 A.M. TO 8:30.P.M.