When creative talent gets together, magic can happen.
Kindred, a Merville-based maker of custom snowboards and skis, has worked with gifted K’omoks First Nation artist Karver Everson to do just that.
Everson, 20, was born in Comox and named Gayustistalas, a title once carried by his father, Chief Rob Everson.
He was a gifted artist from a young age. In 2013 his family asked him to create ceremonial pieces for an upcoming potlatch.
Everson went on to work with and learn from Kwakwaka’wakw master carvers Richard Hunt, Calvin Hunt, Mervyn Child, and David Knox.
“I am so grateful for my mentors who continue to support my development as an artist,” says Everson on his website.
In 2015 he began a cross-cultural collaboration with Kindred, a successful local company whose hand-built snowboards and skis have a global following. The entrepreneurial couple Angie Farquharson and Evan Fai own this local grassroots company that builds the wood cores from locally sourced yellow cedar and Douglas fir.
Farquharson designs the top sheets with marquetry, a technique that arranges small pieces of different coloured wood to create stylized puzzle-like patterns.
Kindred offers two of Everson’s Northwest coast designs on its limited edition snowboard and ski shapes.
“It’s been such an awesome working relationship,” Farquharson said in a recent Instagram post featuring Everson’s beautiful Raven design.
