Artwork | Item #3

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Andy attended Central Washington University where she studied art. She spent twenty-five years at the Boeing Company, many of those years as a Model maker and Display maker. After leaving Boeing, Andy pursued her interest, and love of the “Northwest Native Art” through carving.

Salmon: “Oh swimmer, life bringer, your return brings warmth to our hearts, comforts our bodies, and reminds us of the promises of tomorrow. “
– Wedlide Speck

The coastal people of the past called themselves “the people of the salmon.” Fish from the rivers and ocean were life itself and it was believed that salmon were humans in fish form, who lived in an undersea world far out in the ocean. Every spring, the salmon people would shed their human garments for silver skins and begin their journey toward the coastal rivers to offer them to be taken for food. After consumption, all the salmon bones were returned to the river and these, along with the remains of naturally spawned-out fish, were swept down-river and back out to sea. There they were magically transformed again into salmon people, to return to their undersea dwellings and await another cycle of reincarnation the following year.

Liz Jones family seemed to relate well to the story of the salmon people. When Keith had a massive heart attack and died at age 54, Liz learned that is wasn’t just organs that could be donated by also bone tissues and tendons. Liz and her family were comforted to discover that Keith would be able to touch 26 people based on his medical history and health. “It’s like my husband is a memory that keeps living on.”

Value: $600

Donor: Amanda (Andy) Kuntz