Painting the Dream: The Shamanic Life and Art of David Chethlahe Paladin

Rating:
Summary: Visionary Man - Visionary Art
Review: David Chethlahe Paladin (1926-1984) was a Navajo visionary, healer, shaman, and artist. He was also a survivor of the Nazi prison camp of Dachau. Painting The Dream shares Paladin's wisdom and poetry, as well as color plates of his vibrant, visionary art. David Chethlahe Paladin's art was his life; through it, he fulfilled his desire to serve, to heal, to live compassionately, and to walk the Navajo way of beauty. This remarkable book explores the connection between Paladin's public art and his private life, showing how he not only honored his spiritual ancestors but also his personal commitments through the art that he gave to humanity.

At the age of 14, Paladin was a runaway adventurer in the South Pacific. He and a buddy stowed away on a ship, where he met a German named Ted Keck. While at sea, Paladin sketched what he saw, including the Japanese preparing for an invasion. When the war started, the American goverment became very interested in Paladin's sketches, and eventually acquried them. Paladin was then drafted, but instead of going to the South Pacific, they used him as a decoder; the Germans couldn't understand Navajo, and Paladin used this language to transfer information. Caught wearing a German officer's uniform, Paladin was captured and sentenced to death for spying.

As destiny would have it, Paladin came face to face with his sailing buddy, Ted Keck, who was now a German officer. Keck exchanged Paladin's identity tags with another prisoner, so Paladin was sent to a work camp rather than the death chamber.

Having endured starvation, exposure in freezing temperatures, and other atrocities like having his feet nailed to the floor, the worse memory of all for Chethlehe was of a German officer that would put maggots on the open sores of his legs and who shoved raw chicken entrails down his throat. He was very bitter and angry at this guard, but something changed during the Nuremburg War Crimes Trial. After he testified to what this guard did to him, another man asked for permission to address the court. While not intending to defend the officer, the man explained that the maggots would eat the gangrenous flesh, allowing new flesh to grow--and that in Paladin's weakened state, raw entrails was one of the few things he would be able to assimilate and draw nourishment from. Paladin writes of his experience:

"The impact of these words were shattering. I broke down in tears as I released the years of bitterness I had harbored toward that officer. I made a silent oath to myself never again to hate or condemn another person.

In my experience as a German prisoner of war I learned much about the inhumanity of man to man, and also much about love, sharing, and attempts to reach out. It was frightening to see how low we could sink as individuals, but it is wrong to say that the Germans or any one group were particularly cruel. We were all experiencing, in one way or another, something that we needed to experience--our own ability to hate, our own ability to be 'inhuman', whether we were Americans or Germans. And yet, in the prison camps I met many people--Catholics, Gypsies, Jews--who each shared a little bit of their truth, their love, their myths with me in order that I might somehow survive.

Today, I am committed to inclusiveness. I believe that it is possible for us to accept and honor the beliefs of others, to sing with joy their songs of praise, to learn from their faith, and to grow with them."

Paladin was a decorated hero before the age of 20, but he still felt confusion and despair, especially because he was crippled from his Dauchau experience. He went back to the reservation, before the council of elders. According to Paladin, they gave him hydrotherapy, Indian-style. The tied a rope around his waist, removed his prosthetic appliances, and threw him into the Little Colorado River at flood stage. He was angry at them, but recognized the wisdom of their actions. They forced him to use his body in new ways in order to survive, and in doing so, he called back his spirit. He realized his strength and his power, and was born anew.

A shaman as well as an artist, Paladin was one of the first Native American painters to move beyond traditional themes and styles of painting. Using various mediums such as acrylics, clay, and sand, Paladin painted Navajo, Pueblo, Huichol, and Egyptian deities; Aboriginal Dreamtime images; and mythological beings born of the imagination and lore of many ages and lands, Paladin's art has been praised for its exuberance, eclecticism, spirituality, and original use of symbols. Together, his prose and paintings illuminate a philosophy in which we are all creators and transformers when we respond with openness to our environment and our fellow beings.

When at the Chicago Art Institute in the 1940's, Paladin met the Russian artist marc Chagall. Chagall used to say to him "You have this beautiful heritage. Tell me some stories.", and then "As an Indian, why don't you just go to sleep and paint what you dream? Paint those beautiful stories!" According to Paladin, those words meant more to him than anything else in his life. It gave him a direction to explore with his art.

I was never a fan of Native American or Aztec-type art, but after reading of Paladin's experiences in his own words, as well as beholding his beautiful spirit and life, his art has taken on new meaning for me. I can't stop looking at his vibrant art that is so uniquely rich and alive with meaning. Although Paladin is no longer with us in body, his art and wisdom remains--still healing and uplifting the souls of humanity.

Rating:
Summary: A vividly presented artbook
Review: Painting The Dream: The Shamanic Life And Art Of David Chethlahe Paladin is a vividly presented artbook showcasing the work of visionary artist and activist David Chethlahe Paladin (1926-1984) in full color. Paladin grew up on a Navajo reservation, was a student at the Chicago Art Institute, and left a longstanding legacy of brilliant color shapes and patterns of undying imagery. Painting The Dream is a welcome and commended addition to any personal or academic American Art History , Native American Studies, or Metaphysical Studies collection.