Artwork copyright Robert Stauffer. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Sea-Bear Drum, 1996

Robert Stauffer
American (born 1953)

Location: Captain Strong Elementary School, Battle Ground

About the Artwork

Non-Native artist Rob Stauffer's Sea-Bear Drum depicts a character from Tlingit stories: a bear with flippers on its back legs that lives in the sea and feeds on orca whales. 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 on traditions from the Indigenous Tlingit peoples of the northern Northwest Coast. Stauffer made the drum by steam-bending a plank of fir wood and stretching a wet deer hide on it using deer hide lacing. 

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Battle Ground Public Schools.

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.