Joe David is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

-born artist, a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht Band of the Nuu-chah-nulth people, also formally "adopted" into the Haida people, whose work is identified with the modern Northwest Coast art movement; among his close associates are teacher and art historian Bill Holm

Bill Holm (art historian)

Bill Holm is a U.S. artist, author and art historian specializing in the visual arts of Northwest Coast Native Americans as well as a practitioner and teacher of the Northwest Coast art style...

, Duane Pasco

Duane Pasco

Duane Pasco was born on May 14, 1932, and raised in Alaska and Seattle. He is a highly regarded Native-style artist and teacher of Northwest Coast art, in particular a key contributor to reviving the 'Ksan style....

 and Frank Charlie (with whom he apprenticed), and his cousin Ron Hamilton

Ki-Ke-In

Ki-Ke-In, also known as Ron Hamilton is a Nuu-chah-nulth cultural figure whose work includes sculpture, drawings, paintings, dance, song, writing, regalia and curatorial activities which document the ceremonial life of his people...

. He is also a singer of traditional Nuu-chah-nulth songs, and has a strong interest in shamanic traditions, both those from his own culture and from others.

David was born in the Clayoquot village of Opitsat (on Meares Island

Meares Island

Meares Island is one of the many islands surrounding the Village of Tofino, British Columbia, Canada. Its name was given in 1862 by George Henry Richards, captain of HMS Hecate, in honor of John Meares...

 off the west coast of Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...

) and grew up in Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

. His father, Hyacinth David gave him a strong grounding in his cultural heritage. He studied art in the Job Corps

Job Corps

Job Corps is a program administered by the United States Department of Labor that offers free-of-charge education and vocational training to youth ages 16 to 24.-Mission and purpose:...

, attended art school in Markos, Texas and Seattle, and worked briefly as a commercial artist (among other places, for Seattle's Bon Marché

The Bon Marché

The Bon Marché, whose name means "the good deal" or "the good market", was the name chosen for a department store launched in Seattle, Washington, United States, in 1890 by Edward Nordhoff. The name comes from Le Bon Marché, a noted Paris retailer and one of the world's first department stores,...

 department store) before, in 1969, turning more specifically to Northwest Coast Native art after he was "blitzed" by the Burke Museum

Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture has been a Washington state museum since 1899. It is located at the University of Washington campus at the intersection of N.E. 45th Street and 17th Avenue N.E. in Seattle, Washington, USA, in the University District. It is the only major natural...

 collection of Northwest Native art, curated by Bill Holm.

He was one of the innovators of serigraphs featuring traditional Northwest Coast Native motifs, and has worked in a variety of media, including carving totem pole

Totem pole

Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, mostly Western Red Cedar, by cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America...

s. His eclecticism has involved an interest not only in his native traditions and the broad mainstream of contemporary North American culture, but also in other native American traditions (he participates annually in a Southwestern U.S. Sun Dance

Sun Dance

The Sun Dance is a religious ceremony practiced by a number of Native American and First Nations peoples, primarily those of the Plains Nations. Each tribe has its own distinct practices and ceremonial protocols...

) and, for example, by Maori art. Rejecting the view that traditional Northwest Native cultures should somehow remain frozen in time, he has remarked "The fact is, there is always change and our people have always been comfortable with it."