Lisa Telford

Lisa Telford was born in Ketchikan, Alaska in 1957. As a Gawa Git’ans Git’anee Haida weaver, she comes from a long line of weavers including her grandmother, mother, aunt, cousins, and daughter. Lisa harvests and prepares her own material, using red and yellow cedar bark and spruce root. The gathering of materials takes her hundreds of miles from home and hours of preparation that vary depending on the final product. Bark is traditionally stored for one year and then must be processed further. Her baskets may be seen in the collections of The Oregon Historical Society, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, The Heard Museum, The Portland Art Museum, and The Burke Museum.

Lisa also received a 2000 GAP Award.

As part of her Fellowship’s Meet the Artist requirements, Lisa held a class on making frogs out of red cedar at The Evergreen State College’s Longhouse Education and Cultural Center in Olympia. Lisa presented her step-by-step guide to making the frogs, spoke about Artist Trust, and encouraged participants to give the frogs as gifts to the Longhouse’s family of artists for its re-opening.