EveGriffinArtWork

Blue Frog

Carved Alaska (yellow cedar) with oil stain and abalone insets.

10-1/8 x 6-3/4 x 1-1/4

2004

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A friend commissioned this as a Christmas gift for her then-fiancé.  “He likes frogs,” she said. She needed something small to fit her budget and her husband-to-be had recently built a new house, which he had decorated in several alarming shades of blue.

 

Although Frog can be a terribly frightening and dangerous figure in the pantheon of northwest coast mythic figures, he is one of my favorites when he reminds us to be not arrogant and to recognize the fact that there is no such thing as a hierarchy among the creatures of the world. Frog has been interpreted as a liminal figure that can bridge worlds, going as it does from water to land. It can also be a great helper as indeed, he played a major role in leading Keish (a.k.a. Skookum Jim Mason) to the original discovery of gold in the Klondike. It’s fair to say that we’re all here today in Skagway because of Frog.

 

Dragonfly has been interpreted as a figure of transformation and change.  I used it along with the frog in this carving to symbolize the upcoming marriage.

 

The posture of the frog, emerging from the water with his arms turned outward, is reminiscent of a famous carving from the Klukwan cemetery (near Haines) of the frog crest of the Gaanaxteidí clan.  At the time I was working on this carving, I was living at Alaska Indian Arts, Inc. in Haines.  People there were busy preparing for a koo.éex’ (“potlatch”) by repairing and making regalia.  The frog crest and reference photos of the “Klukwan frog grave house” were everywhere.  It’s important to know that my carving is not meant as a crest however, since I do not possess the right to depict it as such.  My frog is just a plain old frog…

 

This carving is in Alaska cedar, stained with a mixture of ivory black and phthalocyanine blue artist’s oil paint. The dragonfly’s eyes are inset with abalone shell.