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Pat McGuire
1935 - 1970

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	Eagle, Bear, Raven, Beaver totem native historical 1963 SOLD 7.5 x 2 x 2 (in) wood

Price Codes

Currency: Canadian Dollars

Code A

Below $1,000

Code B

$1,000 - $2,500

Code C

$2,500 - $5,000

Code D

$5,000 - $10,000

Code E

$10,000 - $20,000

Code F

$20,000 - $30,000

Code G

$30,000 - $50,000

Code H

$50,000 - $75,000

Code I

$75,000 - $999,999

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Pat McGuire was a born artist. From a young age, he loved to draw and paint. He spent his early years in Skidegate, in the Queen Charlotte Islands listening to Haida stories told by his uncle Joe Tulip. (also related to Charles Edenshaw, the great carver) Soon, he began to apply himself to carving totem poles and jewelry from Argillite. (a rare type of slate only found on the Queen Charlotte Islands) Eagle and Whale were his principal crests. He used them in silver and gold bracelets and in his designs for ink paintings, platters and medallions. Very rapidly, he exhibited a genuine style different from that any of his fellow carvers - freer in concept and form, dead-sure in line, harmonious. In the early 1960s the word went around collectors' circles in Prince Rupert and Vancouver that McGuire was the carver of the future. Carving was a ceremonial act, for McGuire, although he was far too modest, too self-questioning, ever to acknowledge this. Yet, everything he "released from the slate" radiated the confidence of a craftsman who had thoroughly mastered the medium. After moving to Vancouver, Pat's life became less secure, more diffuse, increasingly confusing and he retreated inward. He had taken to alcohol, and then to drugs. The realm of artistic creation became his real world. McGuire was always broke, and he knew why: "All that money gone to waste - up my arm." he once said. The waste of money and life, ended on a alte December day in 1970. At the age of 27, Pat died of a heroine overdose. His life was short, but during that brief time he produced work of extraordinary vitality, a living memorial to his genius. McGuire's best work was done for cherished friends. One of those close friends was Reg Ashwell who is the former owner of the Pegasus Gallery. Reg is responsable for this photo of Pat McGuire, the only proffesional photo ever taken of Pat. Pat gave his best to every carving, however ill he was or however urgently he needed the money. He could do this because he was the sternest critic of his own work. He seemed never to be satisfied. He would destroy a carving before he would sell something that failed to come up to his standards. Because he carved so rapidly (ambidextrously) he left behind him a substantial body of splendid pieces. Most of them are privately owned. Those who recognized his genius and bought directly from him would be reluctant now to part with his work at any price. McGuire profoundly influenced the new generation of carvers by both his life and art. He established a "school" of carving distinguished by its sweeping lines and clean finish. He taught technique to several carvers, among them Alfred Collinson, Ronald Russ, Doug Wilson, and Pat and Denny Dixon. For this and more on Pat Mcguire, please read "Argillite, Art of The Haida" by Leslie Drew and Doug Wilson.

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