Signposts - Coast Posts by MacInnes

What do Sechelt, Seattle and San Francisco have in common?

All are graced with the art of Pacific Northwest sculptor and woodsman, Dudley Carter. While San Francisco and Seattle host a number of Carter’s creations, The Art Centre in Sechelt is proud home to Sea Lion & Seahorse, carved by Carter with double-bitted axe, adze and chisel, in red cedar.

Carter, a descendant of Caribbean pirates, grew up in Alert bay where his father had taken a teaching post. It was here that he observed the Kwakiutl carvers creating totem poles and other artifacts. This early exposure to First Nations artisans influenced him deeply, and was apparent in his art.

Diego Rivera, noted muralist and husband of Frida Kahlo, observed Carter in San Francisco carving large sugar pine panels for the 1939/40 World’s Fair. “This man was an engineer, an educated and sophisticated man. He lived with the Indians and then he became an artist, and his art for awhile was like Indian art—only not the same, but a great deal of Indian feeling had passed into him and it came out in his art.” So impressed was Rivera, that he imortalized Carter in murals no less than three times.

Built by grant-supported log building students, with wood from artists’ land, and opened in 1981, the red cedar Arts Centre in Sechelt is a fitting habitat for this contribution from an important 20th century artist.

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