Image reproduced in Gary Wyatt with Robert Davidson, Echoes of the Supernatural: The Graphic Art of Robert Davidson, (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing Inc., 2023), p. 104. In the accompanying didactic text, the artist explains:
"For the two years after the potlatch Children of the Good People, I was looking at my previous work and rehashing designs, learning the forms, but I was ready to move on. One of my teachers was a bentwood dish in the collection of the Glenbow Museum and in Robert Inverarity's book Art of the Northwest Coast Indians. The same artist [sometimes called "the Master of the Black Field"] created the box featured in the Arts of the Raven exhibition and I was in the background listening to the heated discussion between Wilson Duff, Bill Reid, and Bill Holm, who were mesmerized by the design. They were deeply analyzing the formline and I would shout from the background, 'There is no formline!' but I don't think they heard me. It would be years before I would understand what they were seeking. What I saw in this artist was the confidence to step outside of his comfort zone, with the skill and knowledge to do so. The artist would contain a shape like a box and he would introduce a new shape within the shape. I realized that the art could go beyond the established conventions. I was inspired to experiment."