When Derrald Taylor and his younger brother Ronald carved together – summoning soapstone bears, bison, birds and other shared visions of their childhood in Tuktoyaktuk – the two rarely spoke.
“We forget everything. We just forget everything and we just concentrate. It's like we were at peace,” Taylor recalled wistfully.
On May 9, Taylor learned his 51-year-old brother Ronald “Ronnie” Taylor – a NWT artist known for his stone, wood and bone carvings that captured life in the North – had died of suspected smoke inhalation. Ronald's body was found on Yellowknife's Twin Pine Hill, a wooded area in the city's south end.
Taylor, who started a family in Yellowknife in the early 1990s after leaving Tuktoyaktuk, couldn't believe his brother, friend, and longtime creative collaborator was gone.
“The first two days were tough. I really went into shock. Now I'm trying to be strong,” said Taylor.
Born in Inuvik, Ronald eventually joined his older brother in Tuktoyaktuk, where the two bonded over a collective passion for carving – an art form passed down to them at a young age by their father.
They honed their skills practicing on canvases offered by nature, including antlers and whale bone.
“What we carve is what we see,” said Taylor. With Kugmallit Bay as a backdrop, the boys spotted wildlife, hunters and fisherman – all of which crept into their creative consciousness and formed their distinctive styles.
Taylor said he and Ronald would often help each other out if one or the other was stuck on something, and the two would brainstorm as a team before carving.
After being taught the basics, Taylor said he and Ronald started taking carving seriously in the late 1970s and embraced soapstone work in the early 1980s.
A decade later, Taylor was living in Yellowknife and Ronald soon followed. The two lived together, and a decades-long, on-again off-again working relationship began between the two.
“Ronnie was very good at what he did. A lot of his work had a lot of movement and life in it,” said Taylor. “He started enjoying different styles, different materials and movements, experimenting with the mythical. He was always trying something new.”
Ronald Taylor's pieces – carved from soapstone, wood and bone – were time capsules of his childhood growing up on the land in Tuktoyaktuk. “We carve what we see,” Ronald's brother said.
“I always tell him that his work is better than mine,” he said, one of many present tense references to his still very present brother.
The pair's talents brought them to festivals where they met other artists, and Ronald was once crowned the most promising artist at the Great Northern Arts Festival, according to the late carver's online profile.
But Ronald was restless; unanchored.
“He was trying to live in Yellowknife, but he kept moving back and forth to Tuktoyatuk and other towns,” said Taylor.
Ronald went on to teach carving to children at workshops Tuktoyatuk, while his brother did the same in Yellowknife. Sometimes, the two would teach together when they were both in Yellowknife.
While Ronald's talent and success blossomed, his struggles with alcohol dependency were never far behind – a battle that worsened in the last year or so, he said.
“He was really having hard times and I was trying to get him into carving again ... ” said Taylor,
“He was so into addiction that he had a hard time getting out of it. He was trying. Ronnie really had that goal to stop but he had no place to live,” adding Ronald resorted to living on the street in Yellowknife.
“Towards the end, he'd talked about getting off it and he started saying he didn't know where to go, what to do – he didn't know how to stop,” said Taylor.
Taylor said Ronald was planning on relocating back home to meet his first granddaughter – a move that never happened.
Facing the loss of his brother's close, quiet companionship while carving, Taylor said he takes comfort in the memories Ronald has left behind.
A skilled, detailed carver himself, Derrald Taylor, pictured here, said he and his brother would often brainstorm with each other if either of the two were stuck on a piece and needed help.
“His laughter, his jokes and his good humour,” Taylor recalled. “You never see him in a bad mood, but he'll bring you out of yours with his jokes and stories.”
Along with Ronald's enduring spirit, Taylor said he hopes his brother's art – which “touched so many people” – will live on.
“He really enjoyed what he did. He used his carvings as a getaway; to getaway from everything.”
Ronald Taylor will be laid to rest in Tuktoyatuk – “where he was grown,” his brother said.