Artwork copyright Robert Stauffer. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Whale Drum, 1993

Robert Stauffer
American (born 1953)

Location: Harbour Pointe Middle School, Mukilteo

About the Artwork

Non-Native artist Rob Stauffer's Whale Drum shows a female whale with a calf inside her waiting to be born. Many elements of this artwork—such as the drum form, materials, art style, colors, and subject matter—are based on traditions from the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast. The stylized whale is based on Northwest Coast curved and ovoid formline designs. Stauffer made the drum by steam-bending a plank of wood and wrapping it with stretched deer hide.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Mukilteo School District.

About the Artist

Robert Stauffer is a Northwest artist whose art focuses on the Native American artistic traditions of the Pacific Northwest Coast. He is a non-Native artist. Stauffer learned to carve after studying with Native American artists at Tillicum Village on Blake Island, in Puget Sound, Western Washington.