Storyteller more important than beauty

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Sculptor David Dragonfly wants to tell stories with his art.

"I think form and beauty are less important then meaning. The ancient Indian artists who painted on rocks and hides knew this. They were trying to tell a story," he says.

Dragonfly may be more concerned with expressing a narrative line, but his pieces have a strong emotional and aesthetic appeal. His cottonwood sculptures, finely crafted portraits of Native faces carved into thick slabs of cottonwood bark, have a rugged beauty based on the detail of the work. But they also tell the viewer something about the relationship of the Indian with nature.

Where his bark carvings depend heavily on detail and specific imagery for their appeal, his stonework has the flowing and stylized form of much Inuit art.

"I don't start working on stone with a pre-conceived idea," he says. "I like to start carving and let the stone dictate to me what it wants to be."

Dragonfly has been studying and working as an artist since 1979. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and later received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of Montana in Missoula.

His sculptures have won several awards and are represented in collections throughout the United States. One of his pieces was part of a cultural exchange with China and his work has also been shown at the Snowbird Gallery in Edmonton.

"My grandfather was from the Mosquito Reserve in Saskatchewan and I used to have a workshop at Hobbema, so I feel as much at home in Canada as in the United States. It bothers me that Canadian Indians can sell their stuff in the U.S., but now we have to go through all that GST hassle to sell stuff up there."

The Kalispell-born artist of mixed Blackfeet and Assinaboin heritage uses the traditions and styles of both cultures in his work, especially his paintings and prints.

"I don't have a press anymore, so I haven't been doing any printmaking. But I've been doing some jewelry and souvenir things to try to make some money. I'd like to be able to work on my art full-time, but I can't make a living that way."

To eke out a living, he teaches part-time at the Blackfeet Community College and does other odd jobs.

He also tries to keep his expenses down by using free materials. His soapstone comes from a tale mine near Dillon, Montana and most of the alabaster he works with comes from Helena.

Dragonfly does mostly smaller pieces now, because there's less cost for materials and a broader market, but he has done sculptures that measure several feet high.

"I'd like to try my hand at working with steel, doing welded pieces. And I'd like to get some of my better stone carvings turned into bronzes. But that takes a lot of money."