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The U.S. Consulate in Vancouver - Steve Wikviya LaRance, Hopi artist, visited B.C. and Yukon January 25-28, 2007

Steve Wikviya LaRance, Hopi artist, visited B.C. and Yukon January 25-28, 2007

In support of the Totems to Turquoise exhibit currently being shown at the Vancouver Museum until March 25, the Public Affairs section of the U.S. Consulate Vancouver sponsored a visit and workshops by Hopi artist Steve Wikviya LaRance.

Mr. LaRance is known for his silver jewelry cast in tufa stone, a volcanic material found in Hopi territory in Arizona. Mr. LaRance's work has been exhibited at the Heard Museum in Phoenix and at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. in addition to showings of his work at galleries in the American Southwest.

Mr. LaRance sportingly agreed to travel from Phoenix straight to Whitehorse, the capital city in the Yukon Territory, where it was minus 20 degrees celsius. He started his tour January 25 with a public lecture at the MacBride Museum on his art, the tufa stone casting technique and Hopi traditions and culture. At the Sundog Retreat, he had lunch with First Nations youth and talked about his art. Then he spoke to these budding artists about how to develop their art as a business.

His next stop was the Kwanlin Dun Koyote Ski Cabin where young Yukoners took him on a brief cross-country ski outing before he spoke to them about Hopi art and culture.

Mr. LaRance concluded his Yukon visit with a lecture to Arts Underground in Whitehorse where he demonstrated carving tufa stone and pouring molten silver into the tufa stone cast to make jewelry.

In Vancouver, Mr. LaRance gave a short lecture about his art to students in a jewelry-making class at Vancouver Community College. The weekend of January 27 and 28 he demonstrated tufa-stone casting in the Vancouver Museum Totems to Turquoise gallery. He held a museum workshop in which participants carved their own designs in tufa stones. Mr. LaRance then helped melt and pour silver into the casts. The pieces are cleaned in an acid bath and then buffed.

Mr.LaRance explained the symbolism in Hopi culture related to the kachina figures, the sun, clouds and corn. Turquoise is a traditional stone used in Hopi jewelry, but that has long been supplemented by other materials such as red coral, which the Hopi have obtained from a long tradition of trading. Mr. LaRance provided a fascinating glimpse into Hopi life in the Northwest Arizona desert, a vivid contrast to life in British Columbia, where water is ever-present.