The Ambivalent Shaman

Literature:
Michael Massie, Michael Massie 50 @ 50 - Celebration of Metal and Stone, Spirit Wrestler Gallery, Vancouver, 2012, (online source: spiritwrestler.com)
Notes:
In an accompanying essay for this work in Spirit Wrestler Gallery's 2012 exhibition catalogue for Michael Massie 50 @ 50 - Celebration of Metal and Stone, Massie sites his inspiration for this work from the bas-relief works he read about in George Swinton's Sculpture of the Eskimo. "I began to work with those older pieces in mind. I don't think that I was trying to replicate those pieces of the '50's and '60's... but was trying to get that idea of the relief across with the sparse detail that is given to the man. He emerges from the stone (in this case from the back of the owl), they become one - he melds into the owl or the owl melds into him. It doesn't really matter which is which as we are all creatures that are connected in some way or another." Massie continues, describing the man as being in a trance - obvious from the way "his eyes are rolled back. His hands have become wings holding the drum and the drum stick." He also addresses the 'Ambivalent' theme of the work as referring to the two sides coexisting no matter how different they are.