Fadden David Kanietakeron

This Akwesasne Mohawk artist was born in Lake Placid New York and grew up in Onchiota. While watching his father illustrate books, he would mimic with his crayons on the family home’s walls. At 19, David got his first job illustrating books. Some of his work revolves around the Adirondacks Mountains, animal and lately portraits of the Mohawk people.

Fadden’s objective are to dispel the stereotype that native people are stoic and mirthless and produce a series of painting telling and preserving the stories of his people, stories only known through oral tradition.

Except from Kathleen Hay’s article

On Thursday , March 2nd, David Fadden was the 2011 recipient of the People’s Choice Award for his submission in the historical category a the Cornwall Regional Art Gallery’s Annual Juried Exhibition. H received the most votes from gallery visitors The Akwesasne resident Claimed The Title for historical large-scale, 18th Century Mohawk.
This Award-Winning painter of “The People’s Choice” has regularly participated in the Cornwall Regional Art Gallery’s annual juried exhibition and has, more often than not, always gone home with a prize but never the one he most coveted.

“I think is great,” said Fadden. “I won first prize here a number of years ago for the juried exhibition, but never People’s Choice. “To me, it’s even more valuable because you want to bring out a response from people for your work.” What’s particularly striking about the work is the joy evident in the subject’s face. The vast majority of First Nations paintings express a stoicism with little emotion, whereas Fadden’s subject has his head thrown back in laughter, full of sheer glee of life.

“Pretty much in all native paintings, photographs and old movies, you rarely see a native smile,” stated the artist. “The people who created these images are mainly non-native, and their view is the stereotype of the fierce noble savage.
“I grew up a native house and whether we had just family or friends over for a simple supper, it was full of jokes, laughter, people picking on each other and humor.”
Although he never pursued formal art education himself, Fadden grew up in a home filled with artists. His father taught art for 32 years, his mother is a woodcarver and potter, and both of his brothers paint and draw.
“My whole life has revolved around art and drawing,” said Fadden, a graphic artist and illustrator, who is also creating graphics for iPhone applications. “My family really encouraged me.”
He laughs himself when he thinks about the all-nighter he pulled completing the painting. Finishing it in the morning before it needed to be submitted to the show, there’s a point when you have to realize enough is enough. “It was the extras, the father, the necklace,” he said. “When you stand back , you see where it needs to be fixed. “ But I’ve already signed my name, it’s down. Got to move on to the next one.”