One From the Vault

It was inside the Museum vault, with thousands of artifacts, where inspiration struck.

Native American artist Pat Courtney Gold was examining baskets made by tribal people in the Northwest. She is one of three artists featured in the latest exhibit Art through Ancestry, along with two other widely recognized Native American artists – Rick Bartow and Lillian Pitt.

They were invited into the vault to study artifacts. The aim was to trigger ancestral connections which would inspire new works. A Klinkit tribe basket with bear and salmon images amazed Gold with its beauty.

"My father is Klinkit, so many pieces inspired me," she said. "I really enjoyed the salmon imagery on the basket because that’s what connected my father and mother’s family. Salmon was very important to the Klinkit culture and to the Wasco people."

It inspired her to create a basket with geometric faces (one depicts her grandmother), dentalium shell, salmon designs and waterfowl of the Columbia River.

"I wanted to emphasize our connection not only to the river and our ancestors, but also the salmon living in river and the waterfowl," said Gold, A Wasco elder who grew up on the Warm Springs Reservation in Central Oregon. "The river is very important to support the life salmon and waterfowl and connects all of us."

This Saturday, August 29, Gold, of Scappoose, presents examples of her work and raw basketry materials, and talks about the Art through Ancestry project. 12:30 p.m. at the Museum.