Oil on Masonite (8 ft. X 12 Ft.)  Photo Courtesy of AFSC

David Bunn Martine: Born in 1960 in Southampton, Long Island, NY. David Bunn Martine is of Shinnecock/Montauk, Chiricahua Fort Sill Apache and Hungarian descent and resides on the Shinnecock Reservation. David comes from a family of artists on both his mother and father’s side. His mother, Marjorie Martinez was a classically trained singer and his father, Thomas Siklos, is a church choir director and voice teacher. His Shinnecock great-grandfather, Charles Sumner Bunn, was a master wood-carver of bird decoys. Living on the Shinnecock Reservation and working at the family owned gift shop Teepee in the Hills, David absorbed the history of the ancestry of his mother’s Shinnecock and Apache heritage. He began drawing and selling portraits of Indian chiefs, sailing ships and animals. Some of his artistic influences were his uncle David Martinez, renowned Apache artist and relative Allan Houser, Norman Rockwell, the Wyeths and the great Mexican mural painters, as well as the great Italian and Dutch painters. Former museum technician at the National Museum of the American Indian in NY, and former Director of the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum, David is a professional artist, occasional museum consultant and also continues to work in retail at the gift shop his grandparents once owned, now named The Country Teepee Gift Shop.

Artist Statement: The mural, done as a gift to AFSC on behalf of Amerinda, Inc., was done as an acknowledgment of the wonderful help and assistance AFSC has rendered to Amerinda, Inc. for the past few years. The design of the mural is a kind of collage of images, some in vignette form, depicting various Quaker personages and Native American personages and scenes of contemporary and historical times. The long-standing relationship and outreach rendered by the Friends toward the American Indian or Native American is recognized as well as outreach toward other people throughout history. Technique wise, the painting, oil on masonite, is somewhat spontaneous and light-hearted but dramatic and powerful at the same time. Showing a combination of classical realism intertwined with symbolism. There is a variation of image resolution because of the variation of reference quality and variety. I enjoy painting in large scale and this piece represents the third mural project. The first mural series I completed depicts the six cultural phases of the Long Island Indian Culture and is in Hoyt Farm Park, Long Island History Lab and Museum in Commack, NY, the second depicting the same theme is located at the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum in Southampton, NY and now the third such large-scale work of a different theme is located at the AFSC headquarters in Manhattan. I am grateful to God who gives us life and inspires us all to use his gifts to the best of our ability in service to others

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