Malynn Wilbur Foster, Mike Foster, and Randy Foster

Tribe: Squaxin Island / Skokomish
Based In: Shelton, WA
Email: malynnfoster@comcast.net
Social Media: @n8v_eyes

About the Art
My commissioned artwork is a story box, symbolic of a bentwood box, with all sides painted on stretched canvas. It is a collaboration between my husband Mike and I, and our sons. I listened to the Lifting the Sky legend and was moved very much by it. Being a huge fan of Vi and all of her work, I saw images of many of the main characters and their roles in the story. I painted the portraiture in our ancient Salish style, and worked directly on the canvas to give me the freedom to listen to the piece and what it wanted to be.

About the Artist
Malynn Wilbur-Foster is a Salish artist from the Squaxin Island and Skokomish Nations. She grew up on the Skokomish reservation and is the daughter of master artists Andy and Ruth Wilbur-Peterson. Totally immersed in her culture since birth, art is more than an expression, it’s a language passed on through the generations.

She began carving and weaving at the age of three. Some of her earliest memories are of sitting with her family learning from master weavers, and spending time in her dad’s carving shop at his work bench learning how to carve. Early on in her art career she focused much of her attention on the weavings of her people, the techniques, materials, history and traditional designs and dyes. She has gone on to work in many mediums such as jewelry, graphics, carving, pastels, graphite and acrylic on canvas. Her lifestyle is strongly rooted in traditional values and teachings of her family and people. She lives by the traditional seasons hunting, fishing, gathering and her art often reflects the season she is in. She spends lots of time connecting to her ancestors and the gifts of her culture, by spending time in the mountains, the woods and on the water.

(via Stonington Gallery)