“Sisters is just a play on the term Dogfish Mother, which depicts the Shark as female. I really like the idea of keeping the face white and the rest of the body dark.” [1]

Robert Davidson has received virtually every national and regional award and honour that can be bestowed on a Canadian artist. He also received numerous international honours for his contributions to Haida and Canadian art at the highest level. Davidson began making prints in 1968 and he continues to produce limited edition prints, cards, and special releases for personal and cultural events. He has created a large body of master level works in jewellery, wood (including masks and monumental totem poles at the most elite level), and aluminum and bronze works as well as prints and paintings.

Davidson began exploring the Shark image after witnessing dancers from Alaska performing at his 1981 potlatch Xaadaa ‘Laa Git’alang Isiss (Children of the Good People). During trips home to Haida Gwaii he would go fishing and observe the Dogfish and its unique features, which would appear in later designs. The Haida word for Shark translates as Dogfish Mother, identifying it often as female. Here Davidson envisions the glowing face of the shark appearing in white from the dark depths of the sea. Many of his large prints are printed to the edge with signature, edition and date written in pencil over the ink.

Gary Wyatt

References: This image has been reproduced in Charles Rhyne & Robert Davidson, Expanding the Circle: The Art of Guud San Glans, Robert Davidson, (Portland, OR: Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, 1998) and Robin K. Wright & Kathryn B. Bunn-Marcuse, In the Spirit of the Ancestors Contemporary Northwest Coast Art at the Burke Museum, (Seattle: Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, 2013).