David, Joe, 1946-....

A Nuu-chah-nulth artist, a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht Band of the Nuu-chah-nulth people, also formally "adopted" into the Haida people, whose work is identified with the contemporary Northwest Coast art movement; among his close associates are teacher and art historian Bill Holm, Duane Pasco, and his cousin Ron Hamilton. He is also a singer of traditional Nuu-chah-nulth songs, and has a strong interest in shamanic traditions, both those from his own culture and from others. David was born in the Clayoquot village of Opitsaht (on Meares Island off the west coast of Vancouver Island). His father Hyacinth David, an elder of the Clayoquot Nation, gave him a strong grounding in his cultural heritage. As a child, he attended a mission boarding school. While there, David visited the school's chapel for quiet and solitude. He saw that the carved altar in the chapel was similar to the artwork of his people in the awe and respect that it inspired. He studied art in the Job Corps, attended art school in San Marcos, Texas and Seattle, and worked briefly as a commercial artist (among other places, for Seattle's Bon Marché department store) before, in 1969, turning more specifically to Northwest Coast Native art after he was visiting the Burke Museum collection of Northwest Native art, curated by Bill Holm. [2020-01-09 wikipedia]