Once Upon a Time there was an Artist Named Garry Sanipass…

I’m at a local hunting and gun show displaying my father’s hand made axe handles. I thought maybe bringing traditional carved indigenous masks would be a good place to have indigenous presence. There was some good interests and sales in the axe handles. Some discussions in memories of grandfathers and fathers who used to make axe handles.

These false face masks that were traditionally used in ceremonies or story telling were carved out of white cedar in eastern Canada. Well, probably every type of wood. But here among hunters and every single type of camouflage you can think of conversations of ease of carving one can achieve from white cedar was probably a common conversation.

Ash wood is a preferred wood to carve axe handles from. It’s a hard wood that is durable and when dried is as hard as steel according to my grandfather and father. In order to make an axe handle the best way to do it is to split it using an axe. The split follows the grain and in order to make a good quality axe that take the abuse you need that grain to follow the handle all the way down to the head of the axe. We had experimented with cutting the wood with a band saw to speed up production, however the band saw would cut across the grain and compromise the integrity of the handle. Best and most efficient way is to study the grain and respect the wood.

Carving a mask from white cedar is fairly easy, it’s a soft wood. But one must respect carving up the grain or down the grain. If the carving knife digs into the wood, turn the wood around and carve in the opposite direction. One will be working with the grain instead of against it. White cedar is also durable and soft. It has a pleasant aroma. Milling white cedar, however, you’ll notice that there is a lot of sand in the wood itself. Which is something I was very surprised about. There is actually sand in the wood itself.

White cedar is unusually lite in weight. which is surprising considering all of the san in the wood. Eastern white cedar, has relatively large cells with thin cell walls, which contribute to its lightweight nature. Additionally, compared to other types of wood, white cedar has a lower density, meaning there is less mass packed into the same volume of wood. This combination of cellular structure and low density makes white cedar an ideal choice for carving and sculpting, as it is easier to work with and produces lighter finished pieces.

The climax of this gun and hunting show is the presentation of a YouTuber who is a hunting guide. Now, hunting and YouTube is a very interesting combination. Both of these activities stimulate the anticipation and reward portion of our brains to give us a dopamine response, also watching someone hunt fires the mirror neuron which also is used by social media and YouTube to keep users engaged longer for their platforms. Both of these exploitive manipulations i am using in my art show, although you tube and hunting seem to be doing a better job at it than I am. But, i think it’s interesting the turn out at the gun show the dopamine response which is created by evolution and probably is a major reason why humans have been along so long. We are very good hunters. We invented many ways to improve on our hunting. As a major predator we mimic the sounds of other animals in order to lure them into traps we set for them. Which a trickster manoeuvre. We still use these same mechanisms today but against ourselves in social media for different reasons.