Ziibiwing Center opens new changing exhibit featuring woodcarvers

Observer Staff

2/28/2006 12:00:00 AM

The art if woodcarving, or wood sculpture, has been a unique type of art to the Saginaw Chippewa Anishinabek.

Through the ages, Saginaw Chippewa woodcarvers have had a keen eye and possessed the ability to translate their vision from a piece of wood.

The Ziibiwing Center has just opened a new changing exhibit featuring the work of tribal member artists Frank Alberts, Smokey Joe Jackson, Gene Salgat and Robert Waynee.

The exhibit runs until July 22 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and includes two and three dimensional artwork with accompanying biographical information.

All are well known in Native America and have created quite a name for themselves.

Frank Alberts has been carving wood most of his adult life. He can frequently be seen on the Powwow Trail selling his work.

"I'm always carving," Alberts said. "If I go fishing I stick my pole in the ground and grab a piece of wood and start carving. They say, �You got a bite!' I'll say, �Just a minute!' And keep on carving. If it gets away it's OK."

Frank attends a few art shows every year and supplements his income by selling his work. He can carve anything out of wood.

Gene Salgat's work encompasses mostly wood burning. His work is also featured on the second floor of the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort. He has become known for his work with eagles.

"I just had a knack for it right away," explained Salgat. "I always enjoyed working with wood. I just loved the feel of the wood, that grain of the wood; each individual piece is different.

"Never two of the same, unlike canvas... wood grain is all a little different and unique. That's why I just enjoy it when I get into it. You bring life out of it."

The Smokey Joe Jackson collection was donated to the Ziibiwing Center by Dr. Jim Kane, from the Chippewa Nature Center in 2000. Smokey Joe, now deceased, carved animals-ducks, snakes, birds, and numerous other animals, and meticulously hand painted his carvings to accurately depict them.

"I would talk to him about making a piece for me," Jackson's daughter Dawn Jackson said of her father. "And by the time I would get home for Powwow or Christmas, I would say, �Hey dad, where's that bird you carved me?' And he'd say �Oh, somebody came by and liked it. I'll have to make you another one.'

"This would go on year after year. He just loved to give it, if it made someone happy."

Smokey Joe was so meticulous in his carvings, that it is hard to differentiate between the real and the inanimate.

Robert Waynee has shown his work at the Santa Fe Indian Art Market and has won numerous awards.

His work has also been featured at Ziibiwing's annual Indigenous Peoples Art Market.

"Each time before forming a new shape in wood I'm reminded that this object before me was once a living thing, as much alive as myself," he said.

"So, it is with great respect that I begin to work the material into the desired shape...the concepts come from deep within me, and to relay to the people who view them, a small piece of my Native American heritage.

"I'm very thankful for my God given ability to do this work of object creation and hope to do so until I pass on to a better place."

The exhibit runs until July 22 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and includes two and three dimensional artwork with accompanying biographical information.