\u201cSalmon Spirits\u201d was from Thomas\u2019 early days as an artist, but he decided to put it in this exhibit because it\u2019s never been more relevant.<\/p>\n
\u201cSalmon has been a part of my art career from day one,\u201d says Thomas.<\/p>\n Thomas grew up in a generation where he was always hearing about salmon numbers dropping; he decided to work with that, and also to work from the inspiration of Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher for his piece.<\/p>\n \u201cThe M.C. Escher-style constellation with all the salmon crammed together was a good way to kind of show the crowding of the salmon\u2019s spirit in the spirit world,\u201d says Thomas. [\u201c\u2018Salmon Spirits\u2019 is] showing an overpopulation of salmon in the spirit world because there\u2019s a depletion of salmon in the Earth-sea realm. That\u2019s why I titled that one \u2018Salmon Spirits.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas\u2014who was at Camosun in 2014 and designed the logo for Camosun\u2019s 50th anniversary celebrations this year\u2014talks openly about the state of coastal BC, saying that the salmon population plays heavily into culture. For thousands of years, it\u2019s been the backbone of both sustenance and art for the region.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, salmon were pretty much the lifeblood of most coastal people. The salmon numbers were the reason that the population grew so big in this area. Why social complexity reached such a high level has a lot to do with it. Food was abundant because of it. That\u2019s why the art became so sophisticated,\u201d he says. \u201cI truly believe that salmon itself was one of the reasons that our art form and our culture reached such a level of sophistication.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas explains that being a hunter-gatherer culture, there\u2019s a lot less time to focus on things like artwork if food isn\u2019t plentiful. Knowing the relationship between salmon supply, culture, and art, it\u2019s easy to get pessimistic about the future, but there has been success on small levels, he says. For example, there are certain rivers where the salmon are starting to come back.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing what we can do when the will of the people actually does change,\u201d says Thomas. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot going horribly wrong in the world today, but there\u2019s also lots of things that we\u2019ve made so much progress on.\u201d<\/p>\n For Thomas, that progress can be in areas such as fishing, LGBTQ2S+ rights, or the racism in Canada today.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t dealt with the type of racism that I dealt with as a kid where people were a lot more willing just to say things to you that would be shocking now,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve made a lot of progress on so many avenues, but I think that changing peoples\u2019 minds, and their disposition to the issues, is one of the most important things you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_8734.jpeg\")
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