A Vancouver-based, mother and son Musqueam First Nation artist team, Susan Point and Thomas Cannell are professional artists with more than 40 years’ experience combined.
Susan Point
For the past three decades, Point has been instrumental in re-establishing Coast Salish art in Canada and the United States. She has completed public art commissions throughout the world, including a commission by the Government of Canada at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and Flight, a 17-foot diameter, red-cedar spindle whorl with carved images that depicts the theme of flight, commissioned by the Vancouver International Airport. Point is an Officer of the Order of Canada and was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions to Canada. She has Honorary Doctorates from the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia and Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
Thomas Cannell
Thomas Cannell began his calling as a young apprentice carver more than 10 years ago and has collaborated with Point on several large scale public artworks in many different mediums. Cannell has also produced a number of limited edition prints. He engages his audience with a new style of Coast Salish art. His public art pieces at Terra Nova Park in Richmond, B.C. and at Spirit Square in Deer Lake Park in Burnaby, B.C., feature his distinct style of strong, simple form lines creating imagery that is new to Coast Salish art. A graduate of Capilano University, in 2014 Cannell's significant role in the creative life of British Columbia was recognized with a British Columbia Creative Achievement Awards for First Nations’ Art. Cannell will also have artwork adorn a new Salish Class British Columbia Ferry, Salish Raven, launching in 2017.