24 - Wednesday. June 19, 1991 ~ North Shore News

Ss Pout: CG

The recovery of the
well-crafted piece

Archie Graham
SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

“C

These are the words of West
Vancouver's Bill Koochin, who
carved the magnificent ceremonial
steering-paddle that will be used
by Lt.-Gov. David Lam to open the
Dragan Beat Festival taking place
at False Creek over the weekend
beginning Friday.

Commissioned last year by the
organizers to reflect the
multicultural -haracter of the tes-
tival, the paddle is carved entirely
from one piece of yew-wood and
illustrates mythological figures
from Pacific-Rim cultures: the
Chinese dragon, the Polynesian
water-dragon, the Haida sea-
monster, and the Mavan plumed-
serpent.

Like an enchanting treasure un-
covered by an exotic archaelogical
dig, it is a clear demonstration of
Koochin’s painstaking workman-
ship. It is even more preciaus to-
day because the art of which he is
a master craitsman is fast disap-
pearing ina high-tech world that
has little appreciation for the art
form.

Craftsmanship has always been
an important factor in Koochin's
life. He was born in 1927 into a
Russian-speaking Canadian-
Doukhobor family in Brilliant,
B.C., where his father and grand-
father were small-scale house con-
tractors cammitted to the value of
the finer skills of the building

raftsmanship is
one of the
reasons for be-
ing an arlist.”’

All of the Cypress Home Recreation and Fitness

4

NEWS photo Mike Waketietd

WEST VANCOUVER artist Bill Koochin has a strong intuhive
understanding of the ancient function of the mask.

His family were people who
knew how much hard work was
involved in having to eke cut a
meagre living in the sometimes
hostile landscapes of western
Canada.

So when he left the tightly knit
community at age 19 to attend the
Vancouver art school, they
thought he was aot taking life
seriously enough.

A career in art was considered,
Koochin says, to be “quite
frivolous. My father strongly sug-
gested that | learn a trade of some

stores are featuring terrific ’

After his stint in the art school,
which he attended mostly on a
part time basis while working as a
bellboy at the Hotel Vancouver,
he almost gave up on art because
there were few successful role
models in the Canadian art world
of the 1940s.

“An ast career in those days,”
he says wryly, “was really a
joke.”

Koochin recalls the story of how
his classmate. fellow-artist George
Norris, decided over lunch one

See Masks page 29

TT as) . v at Se

WEST VANCOUVER-CAPILANO LIBERAL ASSOCIATION

3RD ANNUAL AUCTION

SATURDAY, JUNE 22nd
WEST VANCOUVER MASONIC HALL, 1763 BELLEVUE AVE.

Doors open at 6 pm. Auction begins at & prn.
Ticksis $5 per person

ey aes

Attending will be Gordon Wilson, leader of The
Liberal Party of B.C. and Jeremy Cation, Liberal
candidate for West Yancouver-Capiiano.

For information and tickets,
call 322-4371 ox 986-2885

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ABBOTSFORD 32917 South Fraser Way 852-5255
BURNABY 3436 Brighton Avenue 420-0036
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CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTRE 521-7024