Ed Benham bio:

Mi’kmaq artist Benham is mostly self-taught. This past August he was invited to exhibit and talk about his work at the Canadian National Exhibition.

His bio for the exhibition reads: “Edwin (Ed) returned to his hometown of Shelburne on Nova Scotia’s south shore in 1988. After 10 years of working in Ontario, he, his wife Melanie and daughter Stephanie settled just kilometres from where Ed lived as a child. Shortly after returning to Shelburne Ed met several local duck decoy and mantle duck carvers and was fascinated by their level of skill and attention to fine detail. At the same time, he began to reexplore his indigenous heritage, merging it with his new-found fascination with wood carving, and taking his imagination in new directions.

“Ed, a Mi’kmaq of Acadia First Nation, began woodcarving in 1990. His craft is largely selftaught, mixing traditional and contemporary, to create truly unique pieces. The work itself, for the most part, is done with hand-tools such as knives with interchangeable blades and chisels with profiles ranging in width from 1/8th inch to over an inch, with sanding, shaping and finishing all done by hand. Power tools may be used in rare instances in the roughing out process, but generally this is also done by hand except where not practical.

“Ed has also worked in other mediums to include watercolours and oils as well as line drawings, and while in Ontario spent five years working as a model maker/finish designer for the jewelry industry. To date Ed has works in collections throughout Canada, several states in the U.S., Australia, as well as Greenland and Germany. In addition, Ed is a blues/ rock drummer and has also worked as a background performer (extra) in “A” The Scarlet Letter, Virginia’s Run and, most recently, in the made-for-TV miniseries The Book Of Negros, all shot in his hometown of Shelburne.”