David K. John
The work of David K. John brings the Navajo culture to the public straight from the heart. He began his artistic path in high school, with his instructors encouraging him to pursue a raw talent. He credits being raised by his great-grandparents as having influenced his subject matter: scenes of ceremonies, dancers, deities and other Navajo cultural stories.
“They were traditional Navajo,” says John. “Traditional people that respected the earth, plants, animals, everything that’s on earth. That’s how they live and that’s how I get a lot of my ideas, those teachings.”
His work takes on an abstracted, contemporary role when getting around cultural taboos. Certain colors, symbols and designs cannot be copied except by particular individuals within the tribe. John chose to break through those barriers by letting his imagination fill in the holes.
“Mine’s like putting the new and the old together, coming up with more contemporary paintings,” says John. “A lot of the paintings that I do are kind of sacred, certain things that you’re not supposed to paint. This is more my own style; I’ve come out with my own interpretation.”
One example of this is in John’s interpretation of sand paintings. Medicine men create them using sand during ceremonies, recreating particular symbols in the design. When the ceremony is over, the sand painting is erased and the symbols are not to be recreated by anyone but the medicine man. John says that he lets his emotion run free on the canvas, his imagination taking over to create his own series of symbols and his own sand paintings on canvas.
“I want to express something new,” says John. “A different perspective, different point of view of how you can create a painting from within your heart.”
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