Delta Community Action Team
About This Project
This project aims to highlight the significance of social connection and support in promoting community health. Individuals who have experienced substance use may often feel marginalized, isolated, and unsupported. Building social connections and fostering a sense of community can mitigate these challenges and foster stronger, more resilient communities.
Community members were challenged to reflect on the meaning of social connection in their own lives, while participating this this art project.
Art Pieces will be on display at the South Delta Recreation Centre, August 14-September 14, 2023.
About The Art Piece
"The Design that I’ve drawn is of the sun and the moon.
The reason I picked those is how important the sun and the moon is to our planet in everything we do and without them we wouldn’t be.
So the connection with the sun moon and earth is like the connection we have between us as humans to animals, parents to children, water to plants, teacher to student, doctor to patient. We take away one of any of them we lose that connection and to survive, to get along, to learn and be healthy, we need connection"
- Curtis Miller Joe
March 29 2023
About The Artist
Curtis was born December 28, 1960, in Shishalh (Seahelt), Bristish Columbia, Canada, and is a member of the Coast Salish Nation. He began carving in 1988 with his cousin, Sid Lamarche, a highly regarded artist from the Bella Coola Nation. Curtis also cites Kevin Cranmer (Kwagiulth Nation) as a teacher. Curtis, too, carves in the traditional Kwagiulth style. His work displays a fierce pride informed by the deeply spiritual value system that Curtis brings to all his mediums: carving, painting, drum and dance.
Curtis has been receiving public commissions for several years now, most recently at the Delview Secondary School in Delta, where, as is typical of him, he was able to convince a number of the youths at the school to assist him in completing a large welcome panel. Curtis has also been the resident carver at Hill's Native Art since 2002, where he's met and inspired a great number of both international and local visitors.
A world class Powwow dancer, Curtis spends the summers competing throughout North America and the winters working with youth at risk and as a family counselor. The richness of his cultural heritage informs both these devotions, and is further enhanced by his artwork. Most recently, Curtis has been studying old box designs and has just begun carving jewelry in gold and silver.