Dempsey Bob
Artist Bio
Dempsey Bob is a Tahltan-Tlingit artist, a member of the Wolf Clan.He was born in the Tahltan Village of Telegraph Creek on the Stikine River in North Western British Columbia in 1948.
His great grandfather Justin Ward was a carver from Hoonah Alaska, and great grandmother was a prominent basket weaver from Atlin British Columbia, and began to learn the art forms and the discipline of the art from his grandparents and mother.
Bob started carving in 1969 with Freda Diesing in Prince Rupert and has worked with many artists and teachers spending long hours perfecting his technical ability by drawing and carving. Today he serves as the Senior Advisor at the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art in Terrace BC.
Artist Statement
I have been carving alder and cedar for over thirty years, and for the past eight years I have been studying and sculpting bronze. Bronze has a different feel to it. It's new, and it's a challenge to make it good.
Our people were great sculptors. They knew as much about sculpture as any other great cultures in the world. The great old northwest coast pieces in wood would make great bronze sculptures today. Tlingit people made copper masks, frontlets, jewelry and rattles, and bronze in 90% copper.
Our art has to evolve otherwise it will die. The old master artists carved bone, copper, gold, horn, ivory, silver, stone and wood. My great grandfather was a carver, and if he were carving today he would of “went to town” with all the new tools and materials.
I often wonder where the art would be today if our people did not stop carving for all those years. We have to make our art real for our people today.
