Bear and Frog, 2017, acrylic on paper. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Salish Weave Collection of George and Christiane Smyth, 2022. Photo: Janet Dwyer.
lessLIE’s painting Bear and Frog features the stylized figures of a black bear and a green frog, one above the other. The bear’s face, with round ears, a short snout, large red mouth, is at the top of the painting with its front paws resting on the frog’s head. The frog, with an oval head and a similarly large mouth, forms the lower part of the painting. Both figures incorporate traditional Coast Salish design elements like crescents, trigons, ovals, and circles in bold colours, executed in lessLIE’s precise style.
Bear and Frog draws on two creatures that hold significance within West Coast Indigenous communities. Coast Salish and Cowichan traditional scwi’em’ (Hul’q’umi’num’[KP1] for stories) tell of bears teaching the ancestors to fish for salmon and harvest berries. The bear in this painting refers to community elders in that, like the bear, they are devoted protectors that offer strength to families and their communities. Frogs, social and vocal, symbolize transformation and the ability to traverse between worlds, often communicating warnings or impending danger.
This painting exemplifies the ongoing vibrancy and adaptability of Coast Salish visual expression, showcased through lessLIE’s intertwining of a distinctively bold and precise style, and his reinterpretation of traditional Coast Salish legends, oral histories, and visual language.
lessLIE (b. 1973, Duncan, British Columbia) is a Coast Salish artist from the Cowichan Penelakut and Esquimalt Nations. Born Leslie Robert Sam, lessLIE’s chosen decolonial name is a comment on the historic and ongoing deception and betrayal that Indigenous peoples experience because of colonization. lessLIE has felt, in his words “cultural confusion” due to congruent colonialism and assimilation, and, as such he refuses to succumb to a static sense of “tradition,” and instead views cultural fusion and acculturation as a means of cultural empowerment. He works across a variety of media, with artwork that draws on traditional iconographic elements and often employs titles fused with humour and irony. While working on his undergraduate degree in 1995, lessLIE began studying Coast Salish art. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in First Nations Studies from Malaspina University-College (now Vancouver Island University), and alongside writing, curatorial projects and guest lectures, he has undertaken graduate work in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Victoria.
lessLIE’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and is held in numerous collections, including at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, SFU Galleries (Burnaby), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), and Westfälisches Museum für Naturkunde (Landesmuseum und Planetarium) (Münster, Germany). He has had solo exhibitions at Two Rivers Gallery (Prince George) and Alcheringa Gallery (Victoria).