DWAYNE SIMEON (1960-) KWAKWA̱KA̱ʼWAKW / SQUAMISH
Old Moon (Nuxalk [Bella Coola] Style Moon Mask), November 2003
cedar wood, acrylic paint, and copper, 21.5 x 21 x 6.5 in (54.6 x 53.3 x 16.5 cm)
signed, titled, and dated, "DWAYNE SIMEON / OLD MOON 2003 NOV".

Provenance
Important Private Collection, Pittsburgh, PA.

Dwayne Simeon is a Kwak-waka’wakw artist from Campbell River on the east coast of Vancouver Island. He began carving under the instruction of Sam Henderson in Campbell River before moving to Victoria to study with Tony Hunt and John Livingston at Thunderbird Park and the Arts of the Raven Studio. He relocated to Vancouver and enrolled first in a jewellery program at the Vancouver Vocational Institute followed by a Serigraph course at the Vancouver Indian Centre. Dwayne offers his work through galleries across the lower mainland and private commissions. He opened his own gallery which operated for several years and offered instruction in jewellery design and carving to new artists as well as retail sales. He continues to work in wood, precious metals and limited-edition prints.

This mask titled Old Moon is carved in the Nuxalk (Bella Coola)
style and uses both classic formline and expressive finger paint styles both common in Northwest Coast art. The moon holds a revered position among many Northwest Coast nations as it was monitored by elders for a range of information such as forecasting weather, the seasonal arrival of food source and allowed villages to prepare in advance for feast or famine and the safe navigation of the seas and forests. It is also an ancestral figure connecting the arrival of the first people to the earth.

Gary Wyatt