Vancouver, Whistler & Vancouver Island - Washington, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest - page 866

British Columbia is one of the centers of film in Canada, and Vancouver is a hot spot.
Past movies and TV series shot in British Columbia include The X-Files (1993-2002),
Roxanne (1987), The Butterfly Effect (2004) and An Unfinished Life (2005).
The Pacific Northwest's First Art
The first artists drawn to the Northwest's beauty were coastal Native Americans, whose
tribes included the Haida, Salish, Tlingit and Tsimshian. The most well-known form of
art in this region is the totem pole, clan symbols which denote wealth and prestige. Made
of Western red cedar, these totems used stylized geometric shapes and the motifs of sac-
red animals (such as eagles, ravens and bears). They could reach 80ft in length and take
up to a year to complete.
Carved wooden masks are another popular form of Northwest coast art. These were
originally used in dances, traditional ceremonies and even wars, often depicting super-
natural beings or animal heads. They'd often be painted in red and black, and decorated
with hair, feathers, fur and shells. Valued highly by private collectors, these Native
American masks can go for tens of thousands of dollars today.
The fanciest Haida dugout canoes, which could be up to 60ft long, sometimes boasted
carved prows and were decorated with beautiful animal images. Some other art forms
practiced by the region's native peoples are basketry and blanket weaving.
GLASSMASTER DALE CHIHULY
Dale Chihuly was born in Tacoma in 1941. After an education in design and fine
arts, he apprenticed at Murano, the renowned glassmaking center near Venice.
When Chihuly returned to the Seattle area in 1971, he helped found the Pilchuck
Glass School, credited with transforming glass - previously used mostly for utilit-
arian or decorative purposes - into a medium of transcendent artistic expression.
Chihuly's blown-glass sculptures are infused with lush color, sensual textures and a
physicality that is both massive and delicate.
Chihuly's 25,000-sq-ft studio, called the Boathouse, is on Lake Union. In 1976 a
car accident left him blind in one eye (he wears a trademark patch), and a few
years later he dislocated a shoulder in a bodysurfing accident; ever since, he's
hired others to do the glassblowing. He now oversees a team of artisans who per-
form the principal construction of his works.
The Seattle area boasts a number of Chihuly installations, including the beautiful
Chihuly Garden & Glass. Tacoma has some huge pieces in the entrance of its
Federal Courthouse, and the best feature at the nearby Museum of Glass is an out-