Featured West Coast native... glass... vase????

Color me well-informed enough to get into trouble. What did I buy this time? The design looks like Pacific Northwest, but the medium is glass with a funky applied finish. Looks like they used a stencil or something and the finish looks almost like carnival glass. Or an oil slick. Is it a bear or something else? It has a great big siggie on the bottom, but it's just two initials. RG or RY with my smarter money on RG.

I shelled out $10, higher than I'd normally go for glass, but I was in the local ReStore.

 

That sure looks like Raku to me ?

 

And I was ready to suggest the initials are PF. You're scary, you know that? Brilliant. But scary. (Something Ron says to Hermione.)

 

Cool piece!

 

more of a bear fetish than Pac Nor-West...

 

Yeppers. Thanks. He appears to be known for that copper metallic.

He seems to be an Alaska Native from the only bio I found, at least by inference:

http://www.ahgupuk.com/Stephan Roy.html

 

I don't see any mention that he is native; the gallery features works by both native and non-native artists. I'd have to say that while his pieces are nicely glazed, and he appears to have studied with other raku artists, his interpretation of NW Coast native style is not really very good, technically, and would seem to indicate that he has not studied with any native artists.
In technical terms, his use of form-lines is not good, and the necessary balance of positive and negative space is lacking.
That just goes to indicate that he is likely non-native, and likely has not studied the NW Coast native style to any great extent.
The pot shown above has a very nice glaze, and is certainly an attractive object. Here are a few of his other pieces; I'm not sure what the reference to "Jubin" indicates.

 

Just for comparison, here are some Northwest Coast native designs showing a more correct use of forms, and balance; note the use of parallel lines, and the use of internal "trigons" (curved three-sided shapes) to give weight and balance to the black or red form-lines around them. Roy's salmon above does some of this fairly well, especially around the moon-face and in the fin of the top salmon; but not quite so well in the tails of the salmon.
Just some of the stylistic elements that one might notice, when looking at northwest coast art and at items imitating that style with greater or lesser success.

 

Definitely has a cool look! Should be an easy sell.

 

I hope to move it on locally; the clay is so thin I thought it was glass, and shipping it would be a nightmare.

 

I'd agree it should sell easily; and it does appear to be a bear.

 

The etsy link claims his work is "Southwest Native American." But it should be noted that there is absolutely no proof that he is Native American at all. And if he could claim tribal affiliation, I'm sure he would. His art work is "inspired by" Native American art, but can't be sold as Native American.

Also, despite some claims that raku is somehow related to Native American art, that also is not true. Paul Soldner, noted American potter, Ceramics Professor, and founder of Soldner Pottery Equipment, is credited with inventing the process in the 1960s. It is more accurately described as "American raku" or post-firing reduction, to avoid confusing with the "original" Raku, from Japan.

I see in one of the biographies that Stephan Roy mentions "studying under" Soldner. (So did I, if taking a workshop from him counts.) And probably every college student who took pottery classes in the 1970's did, as well, as did thousands of hobby potters worldwide.

 

IOW - don't take anything you see on Etsy as gospel. The signature should have clued me in - that and the really thin potting. No Native piece I've ever seen had clay that thin or a siggie done like that. Even the tourist stuff.