Biography from Fine Arts Collection, Luther College:
| Dale Burlison DeArmond was born on July 2, 1914, in Bismarck, North
Dakota, but moved to Tacoma, Washingon, at a young age. On July 29,
1935, she married Bob DeArmond, whom she met during high school. After
their marriage in Alaska, they lived on a 37-foot troller for two years
before moving to the small village of Pelican. In 1944, she moved to
Ketchikan with her husband and from there back to Sitka in 1949.
In
Sitka, she began her career as an artist, illustrating a book published
by the Sitka Printing Company. The success of these illustrations
prompted DeArmond's husband to give her the Famous Artists
correspondence course, after they moved to the capital city, Juneau, in
1953. Dale completed the course in three years and was doing pen and
ink drawings and zinc plate lithographs when she attended a
demonstration by a woodcut artist, Danny Pierce. Dale immediately
became interested in woodcuts although ultimately found her favorite
medium in wood engraving. She participated in numerous workshops in
these latter media saying later that her art training had been
catch-as-catch-can. Dale also worked with the Alaska Territorial
Library moving eventually to the Juneau Public Library where she was
director from 1958 until her retirement in 1979. The DeArmonds moved to
the Alaska Pioneer Home in Sitka in 1991 where Dale continued to
produce art for several years before her death on November 28, 2006.
They are the parents of two children, Jane Donnelly and Bill DeArmond.
Dale DeArmond is an exceptionally prolific artist
who has not only created many art works but also illustrated numerous
books, several intended for a juvenile audience. These include
illustrations for adaptations of Eskimo and Indian folktales, a book of
woodcuts about Juneau, an Alaska bestiary, stories of the first Russian
voyages to Alaska, accounts of early visitors to southeastern Alaska,
and a collection of her own prints. She is known especially for her
illustrations of the mythology and folklore of Alaska Native Americans,
noting that a childhood fascination with myths, legends, and fairy
tales led her in this direction. Her art works have included images of
Alaska wildlife, historical scenes, and wildflowers as well as Native
myths and legends. When questioned at the time of her retirement about
the number of works she created, she responded it numbered in the
hundreds.
DeArmond’s works have been exhibited at the Charles and Emma Fry Museum, Seattle,
WA, the Alaska State Museum, the Anchorage History and Fine Arts Museum, and the
Museum of Science in Boston. They are in the permanent collections of the Alaska
State Museum, the Anchorage History and Fine Arts Museum, and Alaska Methodist
University among other institutions.
The Fine Arts Collection contains six wood engravings of Alaska Native ceremonial hats created by
DeArmond in1994. They were inspired by old photographs in the collection of the Alaska State Museum.
These engravings were donated to the Collection by the artist at the time the Jane Kemp Endowment for
the Visual Arts was established in 1998. Kemp had worked as a librarian at the Juneau Public Library
under DeArmond’s direction in the early 1970’s.
Sources:
Dale, Bob DeArmond Mark 70th Anniversary," Daily Sitka Sentinel (Friday, July 29, 2005);
"Hello and Goodbye Reception for DeArmond." Juneau Empire (April 4, 1991); Whipple, Barbara. "Dale DeArmond: Legends in Woodcuts."
American Artist, 46 (April 1982), 42-46; "Dale DeArmond and the Ancient Art of Woodcuts." Alaska Journal, 6 (Autumn 1976), 217-229;
Contemporary Authors,138 (1993), 124-126; Who’s Who in American Art. 26th ed. (2005-2005), 301. |
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