Artist Profile: Dave Fadden

At the Native North American Traveling College, Dave Fadden works to help educate and teach people about the culture and art. In his 6th year at the Traveling College, Fadden has a long and extensive history as an artist and educator. Fadden comes from a family of artists, who encouraged him to paint and be creative. This positive encouragement lead to Fadden working and painting throughout his life, his skills got him noticed at age 19 where he landed his first job as a painter.

From there, Dave had gone on to create many beautiful works of art that would be showcased all over North America. A signature of his work is mosaic type portraits that have garnered him a lot of attention. The style, in his own words, was a bit of an accident. The story goes, in his own words, was that he 'wanted to paint a picture of a screaming man but got bored with the result and decided to do something experimental. He made broad strokes from the screaming mouth to give the painting more of a feeling of screaming. Adding defining markings within each mosaic gave the painting a more personal touch and he became enamored with the style, making it a signature style of his.

But other than painting, Fadden has done so much more; such as research for books, pictures for children's books and he currently is working on redesigning an exhibit at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. It is one of many projects that he is looking forward to the unveiling in the future.

Another project that he is working on is a mural dedicated to the children who were attendees at Residential schools. As he works on it, he said it will be one of the biggest projects he's worked on but something he is equally passionate about.

When asked what advice he would give to young painters and artists, he had two. His first one is simple enough that is to paint every day, even if it is something simple as a sketch. He says that this will keep your creative juices flowing and get you ready for another project. The second piece of advice would be to go to art school. He admits that he wished that he had gone, as it would be a good place to learn about different artistic techniques as well as connect with other young artists.

Building a community of artists is one of the most important things a young artist can do. Dave Fadden can be found at the Native North American Traveling College on Kawehnoke, but during the summer he is takes care of his Grandfather's (Ray Fadden) Iroquois Museum in Onchiota.