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Salish Bracelet

Coast Salish bracelets, collected only in the 18th and 19th centuries, were made of goat horn. Most of these bracelets had what some scholars believed to be decorative, non-representational deSIGNS (the sign and the signified. As a contemporary Coast Salish artist, it is my contention that these designs were an ambiguous and abstract way of visually expresSING the Coast Salish world view. For this reason, in the center of this design, I have placed two ambiguous, visually vague faces, which are flanked by abstract, “decorative” deSIGNS (take away the sign, and see the signified).

these aesthetic principles

are not mere aesthetic principles

they are actual principles

to live by in life

these motifs are not mere motifs

they are actual cultural beliefs

to live by in life

these designs are not mere designs

they are actual cultural interpretations

of the grand designs of the cosmos

–lessLIE