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Skeena Voices | Teaching, learning and staying humble

Stan Bevan is soon stepping down as an instructor at the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art
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Stan Bevan in his studio in Kulspai near Terrace on Oct. 18, 2021. (Binny Paul/Terrace Standard)

Stan Bevan was 15-years-old when he worked on his first totem pole after being introduced to the traditional art forms of his people in northern B.C.

Today, the renowned 60-year-old artist and master carver is a proud recipient of a lifetime achievement (Fulmer Award in First Nations Art) from the Province of B.C.

To add to his joy, Bevan and his students’ fingerprints are all over a recently unveiled student residence building in the Coast Mountain College (CMTN) campus. Between a dozen students, alumni and instructors, they put together more than 70 pieces of artwork in the building.

The event was almost like coming full circle for Bevan, one of the founding instructors of the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art at CMTN. Bevan and his family members, Dempsey Bob and Ken McNeil, who also played key roles in starting the art school in 2006, are set to step away from the school soon as four of their former students prepare to take over.

Bevan, who was born and raised near Terrace on the Kitselas First Nation’s reserve, is of Tahltan-Tlingit and Tsimshian heritage.

With art traditionally taught matrilineally in his culture, a young Bevan learned and honed his skills under the tutelage of Bob, who is his mother’s brother. He carved his first totem pole in 1981 for a project in Alaska with Bob.

But even before that he recalls that one of his earliest influences in life was his father, Mel Bevan, a Kitselas elder and a prominent politician.

“I was able to really understand the importance of culture through my father and Dempsey,” said Bevan from his studio in Kulspai near Terrace where two totem poles are in progress.

Although Bevan is credited with bringing about the revival of Tlingit art and design, he said that growing up in two worlds of art forms, he was able to come into his own distinct style that combines both Tlingit and Tsimshian techniques.

But despite decades spent mastering his art form, teaching generations of artists who have passed through the Freda Diesing school’s doors and being recognized among some of the most influential artists in B.C., Bevan is humble when it comes to describing his signature style.

“I’m closer to having my own style and that develops as you progress, it’s not something that you achieve, it’s something that you’re always trying to develop,” he said.

This humility is also reflected in his teaching methods where he stresses getting the basics and the fundamentals right. That includes design, techniques, drawing, painting, tools and more, which Bevan said is integral to understanding sculpture and art.

And while there was no way he thought he was going to teach at the college for more than 15 years when he first began, he said teaching was always an important part of carving to him. Not just because it was his way of paying it forward but also because it helped him learn from his students.

“I knew [teaching] was going to have an effect on my actual professional art career because it would take time away. But what I found out was that I learned quite a bit, because I worked with the students and I didn’t just give them what I knew. I work with what they know and I helped them develop things that they were trying to develop so I was learning from them in the process.”

Drawing diagrams on a board to teach students was alien to Bevan. He taught them the traditional way (just like his mentor Bob taught him and the way his uncle learned from the Haida carver Freda Diesing herself), by sitting with the students individually and carving with them.

In the process, he was busy carving and producing art at the same time. Ultimately, according to him, “how are you going to teach art if you’re not doing art?”

As he comes closer to exiting his role as an instructor at the college, Bevan is glad they were able to tap into a stream of alumni who are not just great artists, but also good teachers.

“Over the last five years we’ve been developing alumni to take over and teach and I believe these alumni members taking over is important because they understand the value and the structure and everything of how the school works,” he said.

Passing the baton does not mean retirement.

“I call my studio my retirement home,” he said.

There’s already a stream of projects that he wants to work on, like working on his own art, spending more time on his latest obsession with woodblock prints and mentoring young artists.



About the Author: Binny Paul

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