Name of artist: Allen James
Present address: Alert Bay, B.C.
Date of birth: September 14, 1933
Place of birth: Wakeman Sound
Date of death: July 1, 1978
Former occupation: Artist (oil and watercolour painting) Chief Councilor for the village of Gilford Island

Biographical Notes

• he lived most of his life in the village of Gilford Island in Simoon Sound.
• at age 4 he had a fall and injured his back. He spent the next 6 years in the Crippled Children's Hospital. Although he was able to walk he was not able to carry out strenuous activities.
• his painting was his life's work; it allowed him to find a niche for himself in the society
• he is from the Kwiksootainuk cultural group; Gwayasdum's band/reserve
• he was a self-taught artist; he began with illustrations of dancers in traditional costumes, and then began doing crest designs.
• he developed his own style, using Audrey Hawthorn's Art of the Kwakiutl Indians (1967) almost exclusively as a source; in fact, one can often find the source of one of his images in Hawthorn's book
• in the background of his paintings he often represented an object, such as a feast ladle. The human figures in his paintings are usually dressed in costume or wearing masks
• the Campbell River Museum has 107 of James' paintings in its collection; the Art Department of the Glenbow Museum has 86 of his watercolours and several pencil sketches; the National Museum of Man has 25 watercolours, the UBC Museum of Anthropology has 9, and the B.C. Provincial Museum has 3.
• this collection contains 56 of his paintings.