Duane Pasco

Duane Pasco: Life as Art chronicles Pasco's journey as an artist and the transformation of his work over the last fifty years. His art--masks, boxes, bowls, rattles, panels, poles, and sculpture--is beautifully presented in photographs. Stories reveal his development as a leading artist in the Northwest Coast Native art traditions and the scope of his influence on the rise of contemporary Northwest Coast Native art in Canada and the United States.

In the late 1960s, Pasco was among a handful of artists working with Northwest Coast Native art forms. In 1969 he was invited to work on the 'Ksan village project in British Columbia to teach traditional art skills to local Gitxsan Natives. Pasco was awarded the largest Native-style art contract in the history of Washington State in 1972, and several of his works were installed at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Throughout his career, Pasco has taught and lectured at the University of Washington, the University of Alaska, the University of British Columbia, and in countless Native communities. His work and teaching has helped define Seattle as the center of contemporary and traditional Northwest Coast Native-style art.