Reflections, 2019, etched glass, wood, and stainless steel. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Salish Weave Collection of George and Christiane Smyth, 2022. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
Echoes and Reflections, 2019, acrylic on canvas. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Salish Weave Collection of George and Christiane Smyth, 2022. Photo: Janet Dwyer
Event Horizon, 2017, sandblasted cedar and acrylic paint. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Salish Weave Collection of George and Christiane Smyth, 2022. Photo: Janet Dwyer
Dylan Thomas combines traditional Coast Salish design elements including the use of trigons, circles, crescents, and mirrored geometric compositions with contemporary colour palettes and media. In addition to Coast Salish influences, Thomas draws inspiration from cross-cultural studies of traditional and ancient geometric art forms; as such, Thomas’ artworks are part of a global, post-colonial and post-modern discourse.
Reflections is a large etched glass sculpture depicting a central frog flanked by the two heads of a sea serpent (Sisiutl). In Coast Salish design, Sisiutl is often depicted as a two-headed sea serpent with a horn on the top of its head; both frog and Sisiutl are revered for their adaptability and ability to travel across boundaries and between worlds. Reflections references the interplay between negative and positive elements and is a modern take on a spindle whorl design using the traditional Coast Salish design elements.
Thomas’ acrylic on canvas works demonstrate the artist’s re-interpretation of his inherited Coast Salish visual language. Traditional Coast Salish cultural production often used mirrored symmetry with a vertical mirror line, which Thomas utilizes in Echoes and Reflections. The mirror design depicts four birds, two facing each other in the centre, beak to beak, and two inverted in the upper corners. While the artist also uses traditional Coast Salish design elements of trigons, circles, and crescents, Echoes and Reflections’ composition is rendered in a more contemporary palette of clear blue, mint green, burgundy and dusty rose.
Event Horizon is a painting on sandblasted cedar. The work uses a circular geometric composition with a rotational symmetry design and a muted colour palette. Thomas has much admired and studied the geometric representations used by his Coast Salish ancestors, many of which have mirrored or rotational symmetry, such as those found upon spindle whorls. Thomas’ works demonstrate the continued vitality and evolution of Coast Salish cultural practice and visual design.
Dylan Thomas (Qwul'thilum) (b. 1986, Victoria, British Columbia) is a Coast Salish artist and is a member of the Lyackson First Nation of Valdes Island. Thomas has studied Salish art along with other forms of traditional geometric art from other cultures and civilizations. At the start of his career, Thomas learned jewelry design and making with the late artist Seletze (Delmar Johnnie) and apprenticed under Kwakwaka’wakw artist, Rande Cook, to perfect design techniques and work with different media. His work has also been deeply influenced by Vajrayana Buddhist mandalas, Celtic knots, Islamic tessellations, and many other ancient geometric art traditions. Thomas’s unique style expresses concern for the health of the land and our relationship with it. He integrates layers of historical knowledge through stories of Salish origin with complex geometric designs from the contemporary world.
In 2013, Coast Salish artist lessLIE invited Thomas to participate in the group exhibition Urban Thunderbirds - Ravens in a Material World at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. In 2016, Victoria’s Alcheringa Gallery hosted Thomas’ first solo art show entitled Sacred Geometry. Thomas’ artwork is held in both private and public collections including the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Museum of Vancouver, UBC’s Museum of Anthropology (Vancouver), and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.