Child portrait of David

Photograph of David Paladin as a child

This professional photograph of David was taken when he was a child living with his foster mother.

David Paladin - Bunny - childhood sketch

The teachers at the Indian School in Santa Fe wanted me to do traditional Indian subjects.  I rebelled.  I didn't want to sketch horses or Indians.  Dorothy Dunn had worked with the kids, encouraging them to draw familiar Indian images and helped to develop a "traditional Indian" style. 

            I went from drawing pictographs to wild flowers.  The teachers thought I was a failure because in their eyes, Indians did not paint wild flowers.  I had a great dream of doing a book of wild flowers.  An old German woman gave me a sketch book.  I filled it with drawings of flowers.  One of the teachers at the Indian School found it and burned it.  I had to stand in front of the dining hall, holding a cannon ball in my hand as punishment for drawing wild flowers.