IceBear’s aboriginal culture forms the underpinnings of his art, but not in any traditional way.
From depictions of the great polar bears who inspire his totemic name to wide abstract canvases suggesting the beginnings of our universe, IceBear takes one on a journey into Imagination.
He leads you to the door to that magic place, unlocks it and allows the viewer to enter alone, to see and feel the spirit of that place according to his or her individual experience.
With his arrival on the west coast, and his acclimatization to the west coast lifestyle, his early love for fine art started to re-assert itself. He has settled himself in Chemainus. Over the past few decades, he has felt a growing need to follow his dreams, fulfill his “responsibilities” and give the visions the chance to materialize.
Ice Bear’s work reflects his beliefs about the necessity of understanding the natural world around us, and learning to respect both this Earth and all our fellow travellers on it. Other themes are related to these beliefs, reflecting his cultural heritage, the mythologies of aboriginal peoples, and the conundrum of being aboriginal in a technological world.
Ice Bear and his work are inseparable; art is his reason for being. But he does not take credit for his talent, or ‘gift’, as he prefers to call it; he says it was given him as a tool by the Creator so that he can fulfill his responsibilities: giving reality to the visions the Creator sends him. He signs the art ‘Ice Bear’ to separate himself as an individual from the Creator’s artistic gift.
