Don Porter probably wouldn't say that he's lived up to the stereotype of a suffering artist. But in a way, he spent years suffering for his art, toiling away in the private industry, fulfilling his artistic itches only on the side and on his own time. Despite his promise showing up very early in life, Porter's art had to take a backseat to the more pressing need to earn a living. But, much like his life, his art has been a moving target.
Porter was a mere first-grader when his teacher noticed his artistic streak.
The self-proclaimed "mongrel of the South" showed more than just a passing talent for finger painting, and his teacher urged his parents to let him pursue art. For a while, he did just that - earning a degree in fine arts from Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo. But with graduation came the harsh realities of needing a regular salary -and so he took a succession of jobs unrelated to art, working in the food industry, even pest control and drafting.
Ultimately, Porter landed in wastewater treatment management, working for a private company that manages facilities for municipalities across the Southeast. He started as a regular worker and moved up to management through the years. But his art was always there, always on the side. Others took notice, he says, and often asked, "Why aren't you pursuing this?"
Porter, who turned 58 on March 29, finally did. After a six-year stint as a wastewater treatment plant manager in Venice, Fla., he and his wife moved back to Tennessee, where he opened his own art gallery in 1995 in Gatlinburg. As nerve wracking as it was to rely on his art for his livelihood, Porter says he was happy to get out of the surprising politics of the wastewater treatment industry.
"I started getting tired of that," he says.
Gatlinburg is a tourist town, and for a while, Porter's art sold well. "But overhead can be a killer," he says. A down economy and high expenses "became a deciding factor," and in 1998, Porter closed his shop and re-entered the workforce, opting to sell his art in other people's galleries across the Southeast. Even as worked as a project manager for a log home company in Tennessee, his work sold across 26 states. Even as his art sales flourished, his job in the private industry suffered. The economy took its toll, and Porter lost his job. So in 2004, Porter and wife Shiela moved to Haines City so he could work for the city of Lake Wales as a facilities supervisor.
Porter's art reflects his career. It has changed dramatically over time, as his preferences evolve and experimentation moved him in new directions. When he first entered the job market, he confesses, "I didn't do any artwork for a number of years." So when he took up his brushes again, he looked back on what he knew and what he could afford: Painting with oils, which he first started working with in high school, was expensive. In college, he'd been introduced to water colors, charcoals and screen printing, but "I loathed water colors when I was in college." When he began again, he first eased into mixed media - colored pencils and markers.
Ultimately, he moved into enemy territory: Water colors. "I eased into it, got my own technique," he says. Experimenting led him to some artistic epiphanies about how artists are forced to paint when using oils and acrylics versus water colors. Water colors allow a person to paint in reverse, Porter says, because the paper is white. His preferred style is realism, spinning the painting on white canvas into the appearance of 3-D. "My approach is if you fool the eye, then you fool the brain," he says. "Fool the brain, and it becomes real."
These days, Porter can paint "pretty much anything." Although he dabbles in painting animals and architecture, his preference is for cars. A rusty car in a field sparks his creativity, he says, the chrome lighting a fire. "I kind of backed into that as well," he explains. "I started painting cars because, to me, they have character."
He plays with his paint to create the dull-colored rusted look, working off photographs instead of sketches.
Looking back on his life, Porter sees his artwork as a stable element and a source of pride. "It's something that's always been there and held me to a degree," he says. "The older I get and the longer I paint, I feel confident that I can put my artwork up against anybody. I get a lot of personal strength from it."
