Mark Spence is a Haida carver from Masset, Haida Gwaii, who was active in the 1930s and 1940s. He created model poles with a deeply idiosyncratic style defined by very large heads and the total coverage of his carvings with thick commercial paint and varnish. His totems were typically composed of two or three main figures holding smaller, more naturalistic secondary figures, with a finial on top. He is known to have carved at least four monumental poles in his lifetime: two that stood at the entrance of Thunderbird Park in Victoria and two at the Lipsett Indian Museum in Vancouver, BC. His monumental poles strongly resemble his models and were riffs on the same configuration described above. Not a lot is known about Spence's life, except that he was a resident at the Crease Clinic at Essondale Mental Hospital in Coquitlam, BC, during his most productive art-producing years. [1] Today, his work is held in the collections of the Museum of Vancouver and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, as well as numerous private collections. [2]

This pole is a classic example of Spence's work. It features a naturalistically painted Bald Eagle finial on top, a Bear holding a small Human in a button robe and hat, an Eagle in a horaltic pose with two-dimensional Eagles painted on its wings, and a Bear holding a frog. The pole is densely painted in white, orange, black, blue, grey, yellow, red, and brown and is mounted on a varnished, chamfered base.

1. See Mark Spence's biography in the collections database of the Museum of Vancouver for more details on his life.

2. See pages 104–106 of Carvings and Commerce: Model Totem Poles 1880–2010 (2011), edited by Michael Hall and Pat Glascock, for an image of Spence with the Thunderbird Park totem poles and more examples of his work.

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