A good part of the reason for this trip is due to my friend Godfrey, painter, woodcarver, artist extraordinaire, native of Vancouver Island, a sailor, a boat builder, enthusiast for all that’s beautiful in life. I met Godfrey in Yelapa, a small town in Mexico in 1964 (it’s a long story), and we’ve been in touch on and off over the years.
It was Godfrey and his friends who gave me people to visit and places to see the past week. I’ve been in the territory north of Victoria for about 9 days and now back in Victoria and heading south, I plan to photograph the work of Sun Ray Kelly in Cedro Wooly, Washington and then visit John Raabe, an architect doing wonderful work, who lives on Whidbey Island off the coast on Washington.
This morning I went out to Godfrey’s and met — I can hardly believe it — Tony Hunt, chief of the Kwaigulth (what the white man refers to as Kwaikiutl) tribe and extraordinary woodcarver and artist. Tony helped his grandfather, Mungo Martin carve all the totems and build the large wooden “Big Houses” in Thunderbird Park, adjacent to the Victoria Museum in downtown Victoria. This work is POWERFUL! It was a privilege to meet him. He showed my photos of his work and brought along a moon mask he was just about finished carving. Godfrey grew up with Tony and met Mungo when he (Godfrey) was 12 years old, and that’s another long story…
So after I left Godfrey’s I ended up having lunch at Swan’s Pub on the Victoria. After lunch I asked if they had a room. Yes they did, but it was a suite over the pub and there’d be music until 1:00 AM, therefore the room was substantially discounted. What kind of music, I asked. “West coast blues,” he said. Well all right! So I am at the moment ensconced in a great room, on Wi-fi with my laptop, about to go down and hear the band’s last set and will return to try to get some blogging done later on. The Bill Johnson Blues Band, and they are excellent. Big crowd.
