Biography

Dave Kemp was born and raised in the beauty of Northern Saskatchewan. His parents immigrated to the northern part of the province during the drought of the 1930's. Second in a family of six, Dave, as a young boy, grew to love the outdoors, the beauty of nature and the wild animals that populated the forests and rivers of the Big River area.
Dave's father worked in a sawmill and fashioned his own home furniture. Dave maintains this is where he received his unique ability as a carver. As a young man in his mid teens he moved further north commercial fishing and trapping all over Northern Saskatchewan and the N.W.T.
Hearing Dave speak of the far north the listener senses the excitement, awe and love this carver feels for the animals, landscape and people of the north. It was in this setting that Dave's keen eye first began to study the wolf, fox, mink, bear, beaver, lynx, owl and eagle that he would later so deftly bring to life in his work. During the long evening hours as his fishing and trapping partners played cards around the campfire, Dave began honing his skills by taking an axe to a log and crafting long handled paddles decorated with the heads of the eagle, bear and wolf. It was not until Dave moved to Saskatoon with his family in 1985 that he began to pursue his art with a passion and freedom that his long hours in the bush had previously denied him. Michaelangelo could see the angel in the slab of marble. Dave Kemp has been uniquely gifted by God to see the form of a northern Canadian animal or bird of prey within a block of wood, stone or antler.
Dave currently resides in Sakatoon with his family where he works for the city, attends First Baptist Native Church and pursues his love of carving. He has, in the past, had his work on display at the Trading Post and Wanuskewin Heritage Park.