Canyon Shrine Reflections


Paladin is nothing if not a light-bearer and a truth-bringer, an original thinker and a spiritual warrior who ushers in new light that allows all of us to see our world with new eyes. Matthew Fox


Paladin’s art portrays scenes of spirit gods and ancient myths translated through a soundless peep hole upon a human membrane sensitive to thought and projected through time.

Thomas Farley, Sr. - Wawatosa, Wisconsin


He was a mind and spirit unfettered by the bonds that strap the rest of us.

Roots of Alchemy

 

He had absolutely no limits.

 

 

There was no place his talent could not go. 

Blue Rain Spirits
Struggle in the Lower World

 

He explored boldly places that awe and frighten us, his spirit blowing warmly and brightly into those strange corners of consciousness that we only suspect are there. 

 

His brilliance as an artist, his influence as an educator, his personal magnetism, his compassion as a friend—all this flowed through David from sources older than stones, sprung fresh from wells dug through history and more than history and ages before we began vainly to try to track the development of history, of humans.  

Artist with drum

 

In the center of night he would burst into our world and bring light, carrying a drum, singing. 

 

A painting was destined to follow, splayed with misty images from the pages of his mind, or sharp visions of the spirits that wandered through his universe. 

Blue Winter Kachinas
Animal Dance

 

 

Or a dancing rabbit. 

He knew them all. 

Once, he put his hands on our heads and said, quietly,

"Being Indian is a state of mind."

We carry it as a blessing. 

David Paladin. 

 

Only one was ever made. 

 

He was a friend.  And he is carrying a drum.  And singing.

Tarahumara Drum

Lee Maynard, Novelist