Legend of the Moon

Dudley Carter

Marymoor Park

The Coast Salish story of Moon the Transformer is carved from six tons of cedar.

For more than half a century, sculptor Dudley Carter created monumental wood carvings inspired by Native American legends and folk stories. Although not of Native ancestry himself, Carter spent his childhood among the Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw (Kwakiutl) and Tlingit, and the Indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest are central in his work.

Made when Carter was 86 years old, The Legend of the Moon was carved from a 35-foot, six-ton section of a cedar tree estimated to be 600–800 years old. The work interprets the traditional Coast Salish creation story of Moon the Transformer, the son of a star who came down from the heavens and married a daughter of the Salmon people. After being stolen away as a child, Moon the Transformer acquired the magical powers of a deity and returned to create change for people and animals. The Legend of the Moon is permanently installed at the entrance to Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA.

Carter (1891–1992) was a woodsman, engineer, guide, canoe man, sculptor, and teacher. Born in British Columbia, he moved to Seattle in 1930 to study art and went on to make his home in Redmond where he worked as a sculptor for 60 years; many of his artworks are installed in Redmond public spaces, as well as in other Washington locations, California, Oregon, Japan, and Germany. Dudley famously befriended Mexican muralist Diego Rivera while the two were artists-in-action at San Francisco’s 1939–1940 Golden Gate International Exposition. During their time together, Rivera depicted Carter as forestry engineer, tree faller, and wood sculptor in the mural known as Pan American Unity.