Coast Salish / Squamish / Kwagiulth First Nations Komokwa Mask features a crown design and many other masterfully carved details with traditional black, green and red paint atop Cedar.

Priced at $2200, measures 14h x 10w x 5d. Hand-worked and painted traditional red cedar bark hangs down to 22 inches.

The artist was born in 1962 and is a member of the Squamish Nation in North Vancouver, BC, Capilano Indian Reserve.

He is internationally known for his Northwest Coast Art, and he has also worked as an entrepreneur in the construction and timber industries. His entire lineage has been native artists. He points to his creative maternal grandmother of the KwaKawk’kwa People. He has three sons who also are gifted and talented artists in their own right.

He comes from a rich and living culture. He is proud of both his Kwak’waka’wakw and Squamish heritage. He has always been a community-based person and takes upon himself to help out other artists by supporting their work and their aspirations.

He was recently terribly injured in a skiing accident. At present he is paralyzed and may not be able to make art any more.

Komokwa can also be spelled Kumukwe, Kumugwe, Goomokwey, Kumugwe, or Komo-Kwa.

He and his magnificent queen rule from a great longhouse under the water. He is responsible for the rising and ebbing of the tides as well as the riches these tides deposit on beaches and those claimed by the vagaries of sea weather, both material and human lives.

One story recounts how together they eat human eyes as if they were crab apples. Kumugwe has the power to see into the future, heal the sick and injured, and bestow powers on those whom he favors.

This house is guarded by sea monsters and octopus, who will create rising tides and whirlpools if humans attempt to reach Komokwa’s kingdom. Legends identify starfish as the wealth of the Komokwa. Traditional carvings of Kumugwe are often adorned with starfish as well as sea lions and seals.

Masks of Kumugwe often show him with sea creature attributes, such as rounded fish eyes, rows of gills at the corners of his mouth, fins encircling his head, the suction cups of an octopus, and fish and aquatic birds which frame or sit upon his head. His most important totemic animals are loons, seals, sea lions, octopuses, orcas, and sculpins.