Sun Song Moon Dance

David Paladin was the son of a Navajo Indian mother and a white missionary father, spending his early years on the Navajo reservation at Canyon de Chelly Arizona.

He served in the U. S. Army during WW II and was a prisoner of war for 2-1/2 years. He studied art in Santa Fe and at the California School of Fine Arts. He studied under Marc Chagall and Mark Tobey.

While still a student, Paladin met Marc Chagall at an exhibition of the artist's work at the Chicago Art Institute. Chagall encouraged him to use his Navajo heritage but not to illustrate anything; instead he should listen to the story, dream it, and paint it.