We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful David Porter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with David below.

David, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

In 2022-2023 i completed a project called “We Exist, We are Human”, which included 13 portraits (oil paintings) of people surviving on the streets. The goal was to document and shed light on our cities homeless population, which although growing in numbers, seemed to be invisible to the average citizen. Each painting included interview notes (written on the back of each piece) where the sitter answered two questions:
– What are you most proud of?
– If you could send out a message to the world, if you had one thing to say to people, to anyone, what would that message be?

The two questions, along with the realistic oil portraits, aimed to create common links between the viewer and the individual portrayed. To open our eyes, to re-ignite our humanity, and for the invisible to become visible, and to document a community of amazing survivers in a way that cannot be ignored.

My Artist Statement likely says it best:

“Homelessness is a symptom of a failed society… where money is literally more important than a human life.
This series includes portraits of people normally excluded from society, people we seem ok to discriminate against, to ignore, to treat as garbage, to discard and hope they somehow just go away… BUT… this is also a group of people like us, with feelings, hopes, dreams, who feel pain, loneliness, embarrassment, joy and pride. Some are homeless, some are transient, some simply don’t fit in… BUT ALL ARE HUMAN.
I encourage the viewer to put asside biases, to really observe the portraits of real individuals… individuals that are incredibly resilient, kind, trusting, loving. I challenge the viewer to notice the common links between us, and hopefully discover we have more in common than previously aware.”

David, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a full time artist, mainly oil paintings, living and working in Eastern Canada. My focus is to document people through figurative work and portraits. My compulsion is to somehow create balance, sometimes within myslef, sometimes within the external world around me. I do this by highlighting where i see missing links, or by balancing the scales of positivity/negativity. I see the world in patterns, and i try to influence those patterns through art and the medium of oil paints.

Art has always been a major part of my life and how i interpret, document and understand the world. I started painting about 20 years ago, and its been an ever increasing driving force constantly evolving and pushing me towards new experiences and adventures.

Prior to 2021 i earned my living as a government Accountant (CPA), and art was more where i spent my money, as opposed how i earned it. After 20 years of working in Accounting and Finance, i retired to pursue my real passion… art! I’ve been a full time painter for 2 years, and its been an amazing journey so far. My business can be divided in two streams: commissions, and projects. Commissions allow me to earn some money, while the projects are my passion, my compulsions, its my message to the world, its what i want to leave behind to my kids and their kids and their kids….

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Since becoming a full time artist, my goals and definition of success have definitely changed… initially, success to me was earning enough money to survive on art alone, maybe one day even thrive. But there are trade off to this, especially with a new emerging artist like me. I was always left feeling unfulfilled, like i had more i wanted to say. Now, i see success as being able to produce my work exactly how I want to produce it. To use my work to say exactly what i want to say. Its having the privilege to get up in the morning, to walk to my studio, and to create all day, everyday. I found this is what makes me happy, and is my current definition of success.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The first half of my life was quite different. I was a civil servant, an Accountant for the Federal government for 20 years. In order to fill the void in my soul, i searched constantly for my purpose, for fulfilment… during those years i became an amature motorcyle racer, a competitive dog trainer, a competitive climber (mainly indoor bouldering), a professional musician… all while having art with me as a companion to keep me sane.

The Covid lockdowns were the best thing to ever happen to me. Somehow, i was able to become more self aware, to see the world from different angles. It made me realize my purpose in life was there all along. It was to create art! Resiliency for me means to keep pushing forward, no matter what, and to not be afraid to change course when needed. I’m not sure if i consider myslef resilient, but i like to think i’m incrementally moving towards that goal.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davep2113/?hl=en