Kerry David
Chicken Chaser
6 1/2"
total height
Kerry Lyle David is from Walpi
on First Mesa. He is about 40 years old. He has been carving
kachina dolls for about 30 years, yet he has been carving one-piece
kachina dolls only since about 1985.
Kerry uses only hand tools
in making his carvings. He credits his skill to the teachings
of his grandfather, Abbott, his father, Leslie, and his uncle,
Gorman David. And he says he has also been influenced a lot by
his uncle, Neil David, Sr., and from watching other master carvers
such as Cecil Calnimptewa and Lowell Talashoma, Sr.
His inspiration, however,
always comes from watching the Kachinas in the dances.
Kerry and his work are featured
in Theda Bassman's Hopi Kachina Dolls and their Carvers, Helga
Teiwes' Kachina Dolls, The Art of Hopi Carvers, and The Hopi
Approach to the Art of Kachina Doll Carving by Erik Bromberg,
among others.
"Koshari or Koyala is
the name of a Rio Grande clown that is often seen on the Hopi
Mesas. The Hopis very frequently call this clown the Hano or
Tewa clown as the Tewa of that village seem to have introduced
this personage to the Hopi mesas.
These clowns are considered
to be the fathers of the kachinas. They behave in the usual manner
of pueblo clowns, engaging in loud and boisterous conversation,
immoderate actions, and gluttony.
They are often drummers for
other dances."
- Barton Wright, Kachinas: a Hopi
Artist's Documentary (239)
The always mischievous and
sometimes gluttonous Koshari are perfect satire of normal village
life. Their facial features, posture, and body movements tell
us so much about the attitude of life in the Hopi plaza.