DAVID MATA ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Native American Indian

began drawing at 3 1/2 years after my mother and I were hit head on in a high speed collision. As a result, I ended up in a full leg cast which slowed me down for the summer. Drawing became my outlet, my way of expressing myself to the world, and my passions and infatuations were to be all rendered on paper, over and over, hour after hour.

As a child, my mother would have to literally pull me away from my sketch pad just to get me to eat. In school, my teachers made me prove I did my own artwork and other students commissioned me to draw pictures of what they loved or imagined.

In high school some friends and I started a non-profit organization and received permission from businesses to practice our graffiti aerosol art legally on their walls. I still credit the graffiti aerosol style as a major influence on my artistic versatility.

In my teen years, I developed a negative attitude which got me into a little trouble, but grew up when I indulged myself in Karuk cultural ceremonies, which taught me traditional perspectives and provided me with new tools to grow.

In 2001, I enrolled in the Sycuan Wildland Firefighting Academy, and earned a spot on their Golden Eagles Hotshots crews, later qualified EMT and Sawyer. My Hotshots crew traveled throughout California and Arizona fighting major campaign wildland fires. I left Sycuan firefighting after three years to devote full time to painting.

My greatest challenge, as a young Native American artist today, is to gain enough life experience and cultural awareness to portray the California Indigenous People accurately and respectfully with dignity.

This is my calling, I hold this truth, and that is my responsibility.

DAVID E. MATA • On-Line PORTFOLIOS

DAVID MATA ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Native American Indian

DAVID MATA ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Native American Indian