expand.” Froelick obtained the boards for the back of the poles. The pole bases have the same horizontal
pattern. Bartow completed the pattern on one pole, and community members came to the studio to complete the second one. He explains that the origin of the pleated pat- tern “is not Oceanic or Northwest Coast or African, but it is South Beach [Oregon]. It [represents] the tides changing on the mud- flats, where I dug clams and Booker [his son] and great-granddad dug clams. When you go clam digging, the water makes this shim- mer; it vibrates.” Bartow also compares the pattern to the succession of generations. It symbolizes, he says, “the movement down to generations or up through the generations... like little waves.” Since the Raven is tied to water, Bartow
added carvings to that pole of the sun and moon which govern the tides. In working with an old-growth tree, Bartow and Paden discovered knotholes in the wood. Instead of patching them, Bartow carved animals, such as a bird, peeking out from them. As an accomplished musician, Bartow
likens his carving to the creation of mu- sic. The carving instruments like “chisels, hammers, [and] knives…creat[e] a rhythm.” A musical cadence emanates from the nu- merous hand tools in use every day. Bartow and the other carvers have been working with elbow and texture adzes and then crooked knives for detailing. Some of the tools were gifted to them, and others were made to fit their body measurements. After carving, Bartow added a stripe of red
ochre along the front of each pole. The color resembles the red used in North Pacific Coast and Maori carvings. The final step was ap- plying a finishing matte to increase the poles’ resistance to water and corrosion. Over the late summer, the completed poles began their cross-country journey to the East Coast. When the National Museum of the Ameri-
can Indian opened in 2004, many people referred to the museum project as a “return to a Native place.” It was a homecoming and reawakening of the indigenous presence along the National Mall. While the Bartow sculptures will seem to be a new addition to the Museum, they are carved from a foundation hundreds of years old and from a collaborative effort of old-fashioned strength and wisdom. X
Anya Montiel (Tohono O’odham/Mexican), a frequent contributor to American Indian, was the curatorial assistant on Bartow’s show for the Continuum: 12 Artists exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York in 2003.
Bartow’s Cedar Mill Pole on display in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at the White House in 1997.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 23
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