A MAKAH MASTER carver from Neah Bay, Greg Colfax talks as he watches a 32-foot totem pole he restored get reinstalled at the historic Totem House in Seattle’s Ballard district last week. The installation was captured in a time-lapse video done by The Seattle Times.
The Totem House opened in the late 1930s as a gift and tourist shop, and later was turned a restaurant. Two non-native artists originally carved the totem pole.
Colfax specializes in restoring old totem poles. Other carved art work by Colfax is in Seattle’s Burke Museum and at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond. His cedar masks fetch $6,000 in fine art galleries.
(Courtesy The Seattle Times)