SCRIMSHAW ARTIST

View all Salman Rashidi scrimshaw pieces

After immigrating to the United States in 1976, Rashidi was introduced to scrimshaw in Hawaii in 1980 during a summer vacation from the University of Idaho, where he was studying electrical engineering. His career direction changed. Having always displayed a talent for art, he turned to scrimshaw and has been pursuing this art since 1984.moving from the inland Northwest, where there was little market for scrimshaw, he settled in the Northeast. Here his passion for the “art of the whalers” was matched by that of collectors and he has enjoyed great success.

Rashidi was a recipient of many awards including an Award of Excellence in the 1990 Mystic International competition for his entry Whaling Bark California, done on a fossilized Eskimo ice axe. In 1997, Rashidi was commissioned to scrimshaw a plaque centerpiece for an Associated Press Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented to Walter Cronkite.