William Wasden Jr. affiliates himself with the Kwakwaka'wakw tribe in which most tribe member live in British Columbia where Wasden Jr. was born in 1967. The chief of the tribe, T̕sesti’lela Wa’kas taught William basic art forms at a young age and enrolled him into a local art school at the age of 12. Later, William would go on to attend higher levels of art school ultimately receiving the Henry Hunt Memorial reward for artistic achievement. William began his artistic career with jewelry engravings and after taking a break he has since gone back to doing so (1). After a visit with his grandfather, William began a career in song and dance. He was moved by his grandfathers singing voice as a child and took this tangent from his original artwork toward singing in order to preserve what he believed was a dying tradition (2). His work "Mosquito" was inspired by the traditional art style he learned at a young age, and kept his fondness of animal artwork prevalent. William also has a tendency to include human faces in the artwork he creates. These faces give usually express how humans feel about the particular animal. For instance, in "Mosquito" the human faces seem scared, and somewhat irritated which is how most humans feel about the bugs.
Something I thought was really cool was that after I had already chosen William as the artist I was going to cover, I noticed that the snowboard I use has some of his art on it. I did some research to make sure it was his work and it indeed was. This is just a small example of how his art is used in everyday life.