A series of classes introducing students to the Northwest Native art style known as formline wrapped up last week in Skagway. Interest in the class was high enough that organizers are planning to host more in the future.
Buster Shepard says when he heard the Skagway Traditional Council was hosting a free formline class, he signed right up.
“I like to make drums but I don’t know how to draw. So the formline was a way of learning how to draw and then put in on the drum,” Shepard says.
Shepard brought out his current project to explain what he’s learned so far.
“This is what we did last night … and this is the beginning ovoid that I started with, and then I started to work from that. That’s what you get. I have empty spaces still but those I can fill in,” Shepard says.
Over the past month, Shepard and 24 fellow art students attended formline classes taught by Tlingit master carver and artist Wayne Price. Price lives in Haines, but has been working lately with the Skagway Museum on a canoe project. He was visiting Skagway regularly and offered to teach the formline classes.
“We said yes, please!,” says Tribal Administrator Sarah Kinjo-Hisher,
At first, Kinjo-Hisher says she wasn’t sure if there would be enough community interest. She says she was surprised by the turnout.
“I was just trying to make sure we (could) fill a class … but there was such a want from the community to join,” Kinjo-Hisher says.
Price says he learned the art form in Haines.
“It’s something that’s been passed down one generation to the next and it’s still with us today and it still works. And now I have an opportunity to pass on some of what I’ve learned to a whole new bunch of students,” Price says.
