Nwwood Welcomes Native Carver Bruce Cook!

Cook was born in Ketchikan, Alaska. He grew up on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. His Haida name is 7idansuu, meaning “melting ice from a glacier.” He received this name from his Uncle Fred Grant in the village of Hydaburg at the age of 9. He is from the Sdat’a aas eagle clan. He remarks “I have been working n the Northwest Coast art form for the past 10 years. I was inspired at a young age by my Uncle Glenn Cook, a Haida artist from Hydaburg. I watched him carve in argillite and then carve a model canoe that was given to my father for Christmas.”

His first job carving was with Alex Joseph, an interior Salish carver from Canada. Together they carved a six-foot house post for Boeing, which traveled to Germany to be displayed. He has also worked with Steve Brown in carving a ten-foot Haida pole and a sixteen-foot Haida canoe sometime later. Brown has been very instrumental and supportive in helping him learn this art form. Cook says:” His knowledge of not only the coastal arts, but in other formats has greatly helped in getting me to where I am at now.”

Cook attended graphic art school at Central Wyoming College, earned his associates degree from Northwest Indian College in 1995 and attended The Evergreen State College from 1995-1997. Commissioned work includes carving the Salish house posts at Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center; Snohomish Arts Council to replicate 2 masks; Seattle Art Museum- two portrait masks’ sixteen-foot canoe for the Legacy Gallery, Seattle, WA; Entryway artwork at Wa-He-Lut school’ thirty-five-foot Salish Style Pole at Chief Leschi School; a privately commissioned ten-foot Haida Pole; House post for the Boeing Company, Cargolux, Germany.