Dan is from the Tewa-Hopi tribe. He has been showing professionally as an artist for over forty years. His works command unwavering respect for the earth and spirit of his ancestry, the beautiful heritage that is the heart of his creativity. He is constantly drawn to his roots so deeply embedded in ceremony yet allows us only a guarded glimpse of his sacred traditions; the spirit messengers, the kachinas representing blessings, ancestors and cloud people … all of these forming the interim of visage between the physical and the spirit world.
Dan paints and sculpts the imagery of his homeland and his peoples, always with the integrity instilled in him by that depth of belief and love of spirit. Drawing and paintings was a natural part of Hopi childhood. It gave him a way to express his strong feelings about the culture and environment leading to a path of creative freedom. Dan feels that change and evolution are a continuum; socially, politically, and spiritually and that the future of our planet and membership of the human race must be monitored to insure survival in the spirit of cultural and technology diversity. He says that only then can we merge the positive and negative polarization and balance so necessary to the communal spirit of the universe.
On May 15th, 2009, Dan Namingha was selected to receive an Honorary Doctorate from the Institute of American Indian Arts. The ceremony took place at the Institute of American Indian Arts College Campus.
Website
http://www.namingha.com
