Painting the Dream: The Visionary Art of Navajo Painter David Chethlahe Paladin

Nurtured by his childhood on a Navajo reservation where visions were accepted as a natural part of reality, the late shaman-artist David Chethlahe Paladin created brilliant and evocative paintings that resonate between the physical world and the world of dreams. Here, for the first time, thirty-five full color plates of his paintings have been gathered together in book form. One of the first Native American painters to move beyond traditional themes and styles of painting, Paladin continued to draw inspiration and a rich, symbolic vocabulary from the creation stories that figure prominently in his paintings. Alive with 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.

Praised by critics and sought by collectors, the art of David Paladin (1926--1984) is rich with the symbolism of his native traditions.