Donal Hord - Early Life

Early Life

In 1914, Hord and his mother moved west, to Seattle, Washington. Shortly thereafter he contracted rheumatic fever, a condition that affected his heart and lead to health conditions that were to be a factor in his life from then on. It was while he was ill in Seattle that Hord, spending much of his time in bed reading, developed an interest in Mexico and the people of Mexico that became powerful influence on his life and art. Believing that he could not survive another winter in damp Seattle, in 1916 his mother relocated them one more time, this time moving to the warmer, drier climate of San Diego, California, where they were both to remain for the remainders of their lives.

Hord’s interest in sculpture had begun in Seattle. An early work there by the then 13-year-old was a stone sphinx, carved into the sandstone cliffs overlooking Puget Sound. (This piece, though carved into living rock may have been subsequently removed, for its whereabouts are listed as "missing" in the various inventories of Hord’s work.) After moving to San Diego, Hord began the serious study of art. He arrived in 1916, the year that the Panama-California Exposition had taken over Balboa Park, and where Hord was exposed to the architecture of Bertram Goodhue, the sculpture of the Piccirilli Brothers and the cultural, ethnographic and botanical exhibits that helped make up exposition.

Because of his poor health Hord was primarily homeschooled, which led to his developing a very personal relationship with the San Diego Public Library and its attendant librarians. Later in his career he was to produce two large relief panels for the San Diego Public Library's then-new Central Library building, panels that alluded to several of his interests, notably reading and oriental art. The latter interest developed early in his life. As a teenager Hord had begun collecting Oriental and Mexican art pieces.