David Spear
About the Artist
David J. Spear is Director and co-founder of A VOICE-Art Vision & Outreach In Community Education. He is also a Montana Arts Council teaching photographer and a part-time instructor at Salish Kootenai College.
Artist Statement
I arrived at this place called a colony to teach photography to the students in their one-room schoolhouse. I had never been to a place like this where the entire community ate meals together and made all of their own clothes. This area was remote, the landscape seemed from another planet. But just like me they were curious and sang loudly. The elders of the community had just built a new playground for these young people outside the school building. During recess after lunch these students, like children everywhere, played and laughed until they had to return to their studies. I was grateful to meet and share photography with them and they shared their songs and customs. This photograph I made in some way reflects how I saw them and how this place felt to me.