Joe David, Memorial Canoe
Joe David
1946-
Nuu-chah-nulth
Date
1977
Medium Specific
Silkscreen
Edition / State
A/P
Classification
Print
Dimensions
19 x 24 in. (48.3 x 61 cm)Framed: 28 x 33 in. (71.1 x 83.3 cm)
Accession Number
2018.35.20.364
Credit
Gift of Gloria and Selig Kaplan
Memo / Artist Statement
“The birth of my youngest, my daughter, Marika, in 1982, brought me to New Zealand for the first time. Her mother, Paula Swan, was from there and we were bringing our baby to meet her grandparents.
I immediately found New Zealand and the South Pacific to be very beautiful and hospitable. It provided heart and soul with all the gracious things that inspire the minds and spirits of artists to gracious flight.
Soon after our arrival I found myself at the great museum in Auckland and was overwhelmed with the art and culture of the Maori. Being a wood carver and coming from a carver’s culture, I was in awe of the style and quality and volume — and most important, the spiritual depth and power of the art forms. I found myself unable to get enough of it all, to be touched and fed and protected by it all. I was delighted to find I could sense the deep and powerful meaning behind the faces and forms. For sure, these things of these people respected and welcomed me.
My first and most precious moments with the Maori were visiting in Auckland at the home of Amelia and Eruera Sterling. Amelia Sterling had looked after Paula when she was a child and they were delighted to see her and meet the new family. The feel of their home and their voices and movements were so loving and real that I knew, beyond any doubt, that like my child, I was home. These elders loved and respected us on the basic facts that we were life and we were theirs.
To this day the memory of seeing them sitting side by side on their porch smiling and waving to us as we left fills my heart to bursting and will forever tie my soul to their people.
I have been reborn a number of times in a number of ways by a number of different people - and through our daughter, Marika, I was born to the Sterlings and the Maori of the East Cape — and no matter how many more places I go and other people I become, I will in my heart and soul also remain Maori.”
(on “Mother and Child” http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?products_id=5207, 2020)
I immediately found New Zealand and the South Pacific to be very beautiful and hospitable. It provided heart and soul with all the gracious things that inspire the minds and spirits of artists to gracious flight.
Soon after our arrival I found myself at the great museum in Auckland and was overwhelmed with the art and culture of the Maori. Being a wood carver and coming from a carver’s culture, I was in awe of the style and quality and volume — and most important, the spiritual depth and power of the art forms. I found myself unable to get enough of it all, to be touched and fed and protected by it all. I was delighted to find I could sense the deep and powerful meaning behind the faces and forms. For sure, these things of these people respected and welcomed me.
My first and most precious moments with the Maori were visiting in Auckland at the home of Amelia and Eruera Sterling. Amelia Sterling had looked after Paula when she was a child and they were delighted to see her and meet the new family. The feel of their home and their voices and movements were so loving and real that I knew, beyond any doubt, that like my child, I was home. These elders loved and respected us on the basic facts that we were life and we were theirs.
To this day the memory of seeing them sitting side by side on their porch smiling and waving to us as we left fills my heart to bursting and will forever tie my soul to their people.
I have been reborn a number of times in a number of ways by a number of different people - and through our daughter, Marika, I was born to the Sterlings and the Maori of the East Cape — and no matter how many more places I go and other people I become, I will in my heart and soul also remain Maori.”
(on “Mother and Child” http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?products_id=5207, 2020)
Biography
Joe David was born in June 30, 1946 at Opitsaht, a Clayoquot village on Meares Island, on the western shore of Vancouver Island. The family resettled to Seattle, Washington, in 1958. His father, Hyacinth David, was a respected chief and elder of the Clayoquot nation.
Joe vividly recalls watching the ceremonies he attended as a child. His grandmother was a medicine-woman who predicted that Joe would become an artist while he was still an infant. Both his parents had been initiated in the (Klukwana) Wolf ritual. In 1969, he received from his father’s family the name “Ka-Ka-Win- Chealth” (Supernatural White Wolf transforming into Killerwhale), in recognition of his commitment to carving and cultural participation. Joe expanded the cultural teachings started by his father by visiting museums and libraries and studying Nuu-chah-nulth art and culture. He studied art in Seattle and San Marcos, Texas, but his interest in his own heritage and tradition led him to Bill Holm, the Northwest Coast scholar at the University of Washington, and also to Duane Pasco, an early artist of the contemporary generation of Northwest Coast art, to begin an intensive study of traditional Northwest Coast objects. His later investigations concentrated on only Nuu-chah-nulth style. He was drawn to the spiritual essence within the art and culture—and this later directed his path in art-making. Joe began a spiritual quest starting with his own cultural beliefs, which later led him to the practices of other nations across North America and internationally. He has had a long-term relationship with the Maori of New Zealand and has attended and participated in many events there. In 1988, he participated in the Sundance ceremonies at Camp Anna Mae, Big Mountain, Arizona, and has continued to attended each year —and, with rare exception, has often been one of the participants.
Joe David today is among the most respected master-artists of the Northwest Coast. Museums, private collectors, and corporations collect his graphics, wood sculpture, silver, and bronze internationally. He is also dedicated to participating and contributing to contemporary ceremonies as well as lecturing on Northwest Coast art. In 2000, he was the first artist chosen for the Aboriginal Artist in Residence program at the Pilchuck Glass School.
(http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?artists_id=15, 2020)
Joe vividly recalls watching the ceremonies he attended as a child. His grandmother was a medicine-woman who predicted that Joe would become an artist while he was still an infant. Both his parents had been initiated in the (Klukwana) Wolf ritual. In 1969, he received from his father’s family the name “Ka-Ka-Win- Chealth” (Supernatural White Wolf transforming into Killerwhale), in recognition of his commitment to carving and cultural participation. Joe expanded the cultural teachings started by his father by visiting museums and libraries and studying Nuu-chah-nulth art and culture. He studied art in Seattle and San Marcos, Texas, but his interest in his own heritage and tradition led him to Bill Holm, the Northwest Coast scholar at the University of Washington, and also to Duane Pasco, an early artist of the contemporary generation of Northwest Coast art, to begin an intensive study of traditional Northwest Coast objects. His later investigations concentrated on only Nuu-chah-nulth style. He was drawn to the spiritual essence within the art and culture—and this later directed his path in art-making. Joe began a spiritual quest starting with his own cultural beliefs, which later led him to the practices of other nations across North America and internationally. He has had a long-term relationship with the Maori of New Zealand and has attended and participated in many events there. In 1988, he participated in the Sundance ceremonies at Camp Anna Mae, Big Mountain, Arizona, and has continued to attended each year —and, with rare exception, has often been one of the participants.
Joe David today is among the most respected master-artists of the Northwest Coast. Museums, private collectors, and corporations collect his graphics, wood sculpture, silver, and bronze internationally. He is also dedicated to participating and contributing to contemporary ceremonies as well as lecturing on Northwest Coast art. In 2000, he was the first artist chosen for the Aboriginal Artist in Residence program at the Pilchuck Glass School.
(http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?artists_id=15, 2020)
Date of Bio
Inscription
A/P, Monument Canoe, J.David - 77