Robert Davis Hoffmann

Hoffmann hails from Kake, Alaska. Tsaagweidi clan, Xaay Hit (Yellow Cedar House). “As a child I watched my father carve and design in our Tlingit formline style. His generation struggled with assimilation into western culture. His art kept him connected to our tribal past. By extension, it connected and keeps me connected to a sense of place, history, and identity. Culture is never static, our art is evolving. My goal is to make art that is meaningful in today’s socio-cultural context such that the beauty of our ‘traditional’ Tlingit art continues to invite, involve, and inspire.” “I am primarily a designer. Though I’ve always loved cedar and have been a woodcarver for many years, I find much freedom in design. I paint in acrylics and work in mixed media. I explore ways to represent contemporary issues by using themes of recreation and transformation.” Davis is the author of “SoulCatcher,” a collection of poetry published in 1986. His poems have been featured in multiple anthologies. “My art contains my ‘thought conversations.’ But the materials already possess their inherent power. My job as an artist is simply to rearrange what is, just as re-telling is the job of the storyteller. As I am creating, I am merely re-creating.”