The Quintessential Puffin
The Quintessential Puffin, 1983
Dale DeArmond (American, 1914 – 2006)
#2013.0001.0005
Dale DeArmond was born in North Dakota in 1914, but spent her adult life in Alaska where she was inspired by Native Alaskan myths and folktales. Born into a long line of artists and craftsmen, DeArmond was always active in creative pursuits, but was frustrated by her lack of training. Eventually, she enrolled in a correspondence course and through mail-in submissions and critiques, completed the four-year program in drawing, painting and design in three years.
DeArmond said of her practice: "I started out as a painter and was still groping when I discovered printmaking. It was much like falling in love." The artist collaborated with her friend and poet, Sheila Nickerson, on the two-volume Feast of the Animals: An Alaskan Bestiary, featuring 55 of her engravings of birds and animals native to her adopted home. The puffin is a subject that she returned to throughout her career.
