Tim Paul

Tim Paul was born in 1950 in Esperanza Inlet on Vancouver Island. A Nuu‑chah‑nulth/Hesquiaht artist, he began painting at age ten and later learned carving in his twenties under John Livingston and Ben Andrews. Soon after, he assisted Richard Hunt in the Thunderbird Park carving program. From 1984 to 1992, Tim served as Senior Carver at the Royal BC Museum, completing major commissions, including a Nuu‑chah‑nulth pole gifted to Auckland for the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

After leaving the museum, Tim moved into Native education on Vancouver Island, creating student workbooks, teacher guides, and cultural learning materials. He now focuses on building an Educational Cultural Language Library. In a 2022 interview, he said, “I need to do as much as I can to keep our culture alive. If I don’t do it now, my family will lose too much.”

Tim Paul’s work appears in the Royal BC Museum’s Legacy Collection, Out of the Mist—Treasures of the Nuu‑chah‑nulth Chiefs, and the traveling exhibition Down From the Shimmering Sky. Several of his masks were also featured in the 2005 Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 2 exhibition in New York. His deep knowledge of tradition guides his work as an artist, environmentalist, and teacher.

Tim draws inspiration from his childhood in nature. “I grew up in nature, among the green and learned all about plants and berries. I draw from my upbringings from way, way back.” Alongside carving, he creates limited‑edition silkscreen prints that share Nuu‑chah‑nulth stories.

Community remains central to his life. He often tells young artists, “Art has roots; a house; a story.” He also shares a message he lives by: “The greatest art of all is the art of giving.”