Nathan Gilles is an artist. His medium is wood, his focus Native American carving. He makes bowls, masks, drums, boxes, hand tools — pretty much anything in the genre. He even made a traditional dugout canoe once, which you may have seen. It’s been on display in front of the museum in Coupeville for years.

But it’s totem poles that are Gilles’ specialty.

Over the past two decades, he’s worked on nearly 30, either as a solo artist or in a team. He holds an art education degree with a Native American education speciality, is skilled in all seven totem pole styles, and would be considered by most as a “master,” though it’s not a title he prefers. There are only a few dozen carvers in the region, he says, and each has their own approach.

“It’s like a visual language,” said Gilles, in his makeshift workshop off Maxwelton Road. “It’s like a dance.”