Remembering the Artist: Dawn Hawks

Dawn Hawks was a multi-media prolific artist. She was determined to live a life at the pace and rhythm of her own choosing.
In high school she dug holes in her yard and collected cow manure from the local fields to fire pottery that she made from wild harvested clays.

At nineteen she took West, married an artist, and began traveling the art show circuit. They lived in Hawaii, Oregon, Montana, Florida, and Idaho.

In Idaho Dawn lived off the grid, with no electric or running water for over a decade. She was a master gardener, wild harvester, herbalist, writer, musician, 3D and 2D artist. She raised and homeschooled five children while living off the land. She instilled in them a deep love of the arts and nature.

Before the onset of ALS, she created "Fly Birdie Theater" where she made marionettes, wrote songs and plays, and marched birds, people, animals, and oddities made of clay, paper mache, and human hair across stages.  Her puppets were donated to the Cutter Theater in Metaline Falls, Washington. Which was a beloved town where she lived at the onset of ALS in an old cement factory worker's hotel.  It was a place that deeply inspired her.

Dawn Hawks loved the birds and painted and drew thousands. She grew up in Florida, in a village that was started by naturalists. There she met Erna Nixon, a naturalist that taught her deep connection to nature and artistry. Erna Nixon hammock is a beautiful swathe of land preserved near Melbourne village in Erna's honor. Dawn Hawks wrote and illustrated a book about her walks with her as a young child.

She was of equal measures naturalist and artist through and through. She tried every art modality she could: flat stitch peyote beading, clay sculptures, paper mache sculptures, crocheted masterpieces, illustrations, paintings, carving, sewing, writing both poetry and prose, writing and performing music, felting, weaving, and so much more.

Dawn's last works of art was to use the her index finger to draw on her phone. It was the last movement she had in her body. She tapped away with smears of color to create images that reflected her days as she was trapped in bed in the cage her body had become.

Some of her writings can be purchased still in the link below. In her honor money received from these purchases go towards supporting the arts.