Eagle Transforming: The Art of Robert Davidson

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, Japan Foundation Fellow 1991-92, and the author of
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered:
Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Indian Artists at Work is a quietly impressive book of black-and-white
photographs with very personal captions by the artists themselves. The
photos capture the concentration, passionate intensity, and caring that
go into carving, weaving, basketry, and jewelry-making. The artists’
comments show the intimate relationship between the work, the creator,
and the society that nurtures both.

Internationally known photographer Ulli Steltzer adds her art to shape
a magnificent album of great sensitivity. In her introduction, she
writes of the love these artists obviously feel for their work, and of
the very personal response this evokes in her. The time she spent
working on the book, she writes, turned out to be “a beautiful year,
full of discovery. I love the smell of sheep wool, of cedar, and of
smoked hides now. I love the feel of smoothly polished argillite and the
soft surface of a wooden mask or bowl.” Steltzer includes folk arts
such as knitting and leatherwork.

Her photos may be worth more than a dozen scholarly articles in helping
people from other cultures understand and appreciate the life and work
of Native artists in British Columbia.