Written by Kevin Griffin
Haida artist Hazel Wilson has died. She was 75.
Wilson spent the last several months in and out of Vancouver General Hospital said Robert Kardosh, director of Marion Scott Gallery, where the artist’s work has been shown and exhibited for years.
“This is an enormous loss to Haida art and Canadian culture,” Kardosh said in a news release.
“Hazel Wilson has had a major impact on the artistic rebirth of Haida culture. She was certainly one of the truly compelling voices of her generation.”
Wilson was born in 1941 and grew up at Old Massett on Haida Gwaii. She was known as Jut-ke-Nay and belonged to the Duugwaa St’Langng 7laanaas clan on the Raven side. At 15, she started making appliquéd button blankets which are ceremonial robes created from melton and decorated with abalone, copper and pearl buttons.
