Don Yeomans is one of the most established and respected Northwest Coast artists in Canada. Born of a Haida father from Masset and a Métis mother from Slave Lake, Alberta, Yeomans has studied and worked in the Haida Style since his youth.
Yeomans first apprenticed under the expert guidance of his aunt Freda Diesing in the early 1970’s. In 1976, shortly after attending art school at Vancouver Community College, Yeomans worked under Robert Davidson on the Charles Edenshaw Memorial Longhouse, a monumental project that unfortunately burnt down several years later. Over decades of work he has mastered formline design, the basic visual language of Haida art. He often works with non-traditional materials like bronze and Forton (a gypsum resin). As Yeomans states: "Those who understand [formline] and can design, have a limitless potential" (From Raven Travelling)
Yeomans’ art can be found in numerous private and public collections. In 2003 Don carved a 40 foot pole for Stanford University chronicling the story of the Stanford son. In 2008 he carved a 20 foot totem for the McMichael Gallery’s permanent collection which interwove traditional iconography and totemic animals with different modern modes of communication including a cell phone, laptop and an MP3 player.
Yeomans has hosted several solo shows, one in 1998 and one in 2007, both at the Douglas Reynolds Gallery. In 2005 a totem pole he carved for British artist Damien Hirst was included in the Raven Traveling show at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2006 Don was commissioned to carve two 34 foot totem poles for the new wing of the Vancouver International Airport, which were raised in 2008
