Artist has gathered 30 years of work for exhibit at Wanuskewin

Following his time as the Olivia and Greg Yuel Artist-in-Residence at Wanuskewin Heritage Park in Saskatoon for the month of March, ASKIKHAPMOTAHTAH (Lyndon Tootoosis) is showcasing his Echoes in Stone exhibit at the Wanuskewin art gallery until the end of July.

“It’s a retrospective of the past 30 years that I’ve been sculpting,” said Tootoosis. “I’ve accessed private collections, my own collection and government collections to bring pieces together to show my work.”

The exhibit will display 27 of Tootoosis’s stone carvings with written labels explaining the traditional meaning or story behind them.

“This show is dedicated to my ancestors,” he said in a statement. “My Elders have guided me on this journey. I acknowledge those who have gone and have left the wisdoms and teachings that have preserved life amongst our people.”

A few of the items on display are from his residency.

Erica McMaster, curator at Wanuskewin, said Tootoosis was chosen for the month-long residency because of his unique work and artistic practices.

“I thought he would just be a really fantastic artist to have in our program and be able for him to share those stories with the community and for the community to also see a little bit of his processes with the stone carvings,” said McMaster.

During his residency, Tootoosis met with community members and fellow artists sharing stories about himself, his practice and the traditional stories that guide his work.

He explained how these stories and teachings from his community of Poundmaker Cree Nation in Saskatchean are captured in each of his pieces.

He began carving when he was just a child with direction from Elders.

“Those are the echoes. Those are the stories that guide me. They echo through my soul, they echo through my brain, they guide me through life and those are the things that I incorporate into my work,” Tootoosis said.

Typically, soap stone looks a motley gray color during the time it is being carved. It isn’t until Tootoosis puts on the final touches of heat and an infused oil treatment that the true colours of the stone come through.

In most cases, Tootoosis said, once the final steps have been completed the veins of the rock come through and often a lightening line becomes visible.

“Like a ghost. The ghost then comes from the centre. Like from your soul up through your mouth and most of the times there’s lightening lines in those areas,” he added.

Rocks have a way of speaking to Tootoosis, telling him a story of what they want to be.

“I have pieces that I start working on and then the thought eludes me and I leave them sitting there as I work on others, and then something will pop in my head and I’ll go back to that one and then sometimes I’ll go finish one in like 10 hours,” Tootoosis said.

When he was just a teenager he lost both his parents, which he said left him confused. He turned to substance abuse for years before he returned to his community.

“I stayed drunk ‘til I was 30, then I went back to high school,” he explained. “In the Grade 12 art class, that’s where I started carving again. When I picked it up, I heard my Elders, the things they told me about working with stone and making pipes and I started praying and it changed my life.”

Carving quickly became the most important thing in his world.

“My art has guided my life in a way that has literally saved me,” he said.

The 57-year-old has not forgotten his time with addiction and works part-time in medical transportation, driving people to and from addiction services.

He has also been a member of the Saskatchewan Arts Board since 2000. Prior to sitting on the arts board, he was a member of the advisory panel.

Tootoosis played a critical part in helping to implement a number of changes at the board level. This included changing the view of Indigenous art to be categorized as art and not craft.

“You know it’s that recognition part of things, like allowing us to be recognized in the same way … increasing the visibility of our artists and artisans within the province,” he said.

Due to his involvement with the board, Tootoosis never pursued having his own artwork on display at an art gallery.

 “This is the first time I’ve ever publicly showed my work because I’ve always been in the mindset that if I apply to do the public showings … that artists would look at it and say ‘well, of course, he’s in there’,” said Tootoosis, adding he was never told it was a conflict of interest.

Many of Tootoosis’s carvings are of people, mothers, grandmothers, and animals.

“For me, it’s a way of expressing the stories and legends that are shared because, well, you know, the history with the education system. I’m not very articulate when it comes to writing,” said Tootoosis. “I can’t write my ideas down. I can’t write things down, but having that stone in front of me and able to express it through there, those stories bubble out of there. Working with rock is so therapeutic. It’s so regenerating.”

While he is carving, he creates a space of tradition burning tobacco, “because on the smoke our thoughts and prayers are carried to the Creator.”

He’s looking forward to finally sharing his work and the stories that accommodate them.

“I hope they (visitors to the show) walk away with just a little bit of understanding, a little different perspective on Indigenous ways, our way of thinking. I hope they walk away with the sense of beauty that those rocks evoke, because it’s not just the figure that I create that is there for them to look at, but the amazingness of the rock itself.”

For more information, visit https://wanuskewin.com/event/echoes-in-stone/

Local Journalism Initiative Reporters are supported by a financial contribution made by the Government of Canada.