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http://www.omniture.com --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Hot Topics Forum Photo Gallery Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Online Games August 9, 2006 Myths, powerful images combine in art By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings Photo illustration by Scott Steussy In the beginning, people were weak, cold and miserable, for Old-One-at-the-Source-of-the-River kept the sun in a bag inside his lodge. Raven-Who-Sets-Things-Right transformed himself into a baby, went into the lodge and cried and cried for the sun. Finally, to stop the crying, Old-One-at-the-Source-of-the-River reluctantly handed the sun to the baby. Raven quickly turned himself back into a bird and flew out the smokehole of the lodge with the sun. People who gratefully gave raven fish became strong people, but the ones who jumped from their canoes to hide from the sun became seals, otters and sea lions. Those who hid in the forest became the land animals. And so goes one of the many versions of stories about the formation of the world as told by the native peoples of the Northwest coast. When raven or any other animal appears in Northwest native art, each image carries with it countless stories told for thousands of years. It's impossible not to wonder about those stories when looking at the stunning collection of contemporary Northwest coast native and Inuit art acquired by Ashlanders Ron and Susan Crowell. The collection is on display through September 16 at Southern Oregon University's Schneider Museum of Art. At 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday, Spirit Wrestler Gallery Partner Derek Norton, who helped the Crowells find many of the pieces over 20 years, will talk about the collection and many of the stories behind the images. Speaking by phone from his home in British Columbia, Norton said that a native family traditionally owned a version of a particular story about an animal, and only that family could tell that version. "Ownership of the story gives power to reach into the spirit world," he said. "Raven was never just a raven. Eagle was never just an eagle. They were supernatural raven and supernatural eagle." Out of respect for that tradition, Norton said the stories he will tell on Thursday will be homogenized blends of different versions. The pieces acquired by the Crowells, who have become experts in the field in their own right, were created by contemporary native artists reviving art forms of their ancestors. Native peoples were decimated by smallpox epidemics and war. For the survivors, European settlers in America and Canada reneged on treaties and forbade them from practicing their traditional religions, making art or speaking their own languages. Children were taken from their parents and sent to boarding schools. In the 1960s, a group of carvers brought back ancestral art forms from the edge of extinction, creating a Renaissance of native art forms. The Crowells have collected art from the best of those visionary artists who are now elderly or have died, according to Norton. Ron Crowell, a physician who served in the federal Indian Health Services while in his twenties, said he has always had an interest in native cultures. Then he and his wife were traveling in Canada in 1986 when they wandered into a gallery and met Norton. Their collecting odyssey began. Ron Crowell said for Americans who have grown up in a Judeo-Christian tradition, stories from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible can seem distant. They deal with civilizations long-since passed, located far away in the Middle East. Native stories from America and Canada have an immediate quality for residents here, he said. "Their stories deal with things we know and see — eagles, whales, dolphins, coyotes, black bears. Their stories are things we live with," he said. But like the Bible, the stories have a timeless quality, dealing with right and wrong and how people should behave, he said. The pairing of fascinating stories with the bold, striking style of Northwest coast art helps explain the power of the pieces in the collection. A massive, eight-foot-tall totem pole, primarily carved by artist and storyteller Victor Reese, features a boy with an innocent, expectant face holding a salmon on the bottom, an eagle with a fierce beak in the middle, and the wise face of a grandmother on top. Ron Crowell said that according to a native legend, a boy was fishing with his father and fed bait to an eagle. His father told him to stop feeding the eagle, but the boy continued to do so. Later when the clan was packing up to move to winter grounds, the father told the boy he had to stay behind because of his disobedience. The boy's grandmother volunteered to stay with him. The pair grew hungrier and hungrier, until one night when they heard a thump. In the morning, they found a large, gleaming salmon. They lived on the salmon for a while, but it eventually ran out and they once again faced starvation. Then one night, the boy and his grandmother heard the beating of hundreds of wings. When they came out in the morning, they were waist-deep in salmon. The other clan members came back after being unable to find food and the piles of fish were enough to feed all the people. Joe David's cedar sculpture "Following Wolves" depicts a man who was kicked out of his tribe and fell in with a pack of wolves that would leave a portion of their kill for him. The man's face is stained red to indicate blood. Even viewed without knowledge of the stories that guide the imagery and simply as pieces of art, the sculptures in the display are striking, revealing amazing skill on the part of the carvers. A bronze sculpture by Robert Davidson shows four killer whales merging into one another. Lines carved in the work vary from bold to delicate, while the sculptural forms are strong yet also fluid and graceful. Art Thompson created a chest emblazoned with a thunderbird motif using a single piece of bent wood to form the sides. Traditional "bentwood" boxes were watertight and allowed native peoples to protect their possessions from rain and ocean waves, Ron Crowell said. The exhibit also includes Inuit, or Eskimo, art from people living in the far north. The pieces mix the everyday with imagery that speaks of a spirituality rooted in the natural world. "Woman and the Small People Legend" depicts the mysterious little people of the title, along with a regular woman and her cutting tool, a fish in a skillet and a walrus head in a pot. Qavaroak Tunnillie's serpentine stone sculpture "Walrus/Bear Transformation" combines a twisting bear head and torso with the lower body of a walrus. Sculptures by internationally known glass artist William Morris — which could have an exhibit all their own — complement the works by the native masters. "It's an amazing opportunity for people going to the Schneider to see those pieces," Norton said. The Schneider Museum, located just uphill from the intersection of Siskiyou Boulevard and Indiana Street, is open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. There is a $3 suggested donation. For more information, call 552-6245 or visit " target="_blank">www.sou.edu/sma. Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or [email protected]. 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