Stan Joseph

Stan lives in North Vancouver close to a few brothers of him. He spends his life working as a Coast Salish artist.

Just 12 years old he started carving in 1962 and one of his great teachers were Tony Hunt, Bill Reid and Bobby Cole.He also ventured into painting and designing totem poles. In 1972 he carved big poles which were sold to Germany. One of them was 80 feet tall. In 1980 he carved am 60 foot pole for Sea Span and another one for the Chief Joe Matthias Centre as well as the welcome figure on the West Vancouver Pier. About the same time he started teaching and carved with children.

Since he was 17 years old he was interested in the spiritual dances of the Coast Salish people and became one of the Spirit dancers, especially dancing the Eagle and Snake spirit dances. He became a teacher for these dances for many young people, who wanted to follow his steps.Stan learned to carve silver and gold jewellery and became so good at it, that he started teaching this art at the employment centre.

Stan is now an outstanding master artist who is willing to pass on his talent to the next generation of young artists.