The Coastal Canvas Artists

Michael Jimmy

My name is Michael Jonathan Phillips Jimmy. I am a Nooksack tribal member. I live in Nooksack with my beautiful wife Thrisa and our 5 amazing children Hannah, Natalie, Brayden, Faith and Elsie. I am a self taught Pacific Northwest Coast/ Coast Salish artist. I have been making designs for about 15 years. I remeber the day I really got into our art. My dad had just bought this Coast Salish art book with all kinds of designs in it. He went through the book and asked me what each of the pictures were. I guessed EVERY picture wrong! I remember thinking I need to know these, this is our culture and it's so cool to come from people who make this art. I started by studying this book learning all the designs. When it came time for me to start making my own designs I would learn how to do just one shape and do it over and over until I could do it without erasing. It wasn't until 5 years after I started I learned the names of all these shapes I was drawing. My Uncle Ed and Auntie Candace got me a book for graduation "Learning by Designing: Pacific Northwest Coast Art."

Thrisa Jimmy

My name is Thrisa Lee Phillips Jimmy. I am also a Nooksack Tribal member. I have learned salish design from artists like Jason Laclair as well as my best friend and husband Michael Jimmy. I also graduated from Eastern Washington University with high honors, Summa Cum Laude (GO EAGLES!) with my BA in Children's Studies. My vision is to bring art into the lives of children in our community and beyond to create a healing and empowering environment. I'm excited to see where the journey of The Coastal Canvas brings us!