David Porter was born in 1939 and has painted and exhibited his works for the past 14 years. Before pursuing a career as an artist, Porter held a wide variety of occupations in various fields including: librarianship, air traffic control, picture framing and restoration, night-telephonist, and meditation teacher. Porter sums up his artistic endeavors with this quote: "My subjects derive from symbol and myth (particularly the Odyssey), they are: a substitute for a lost language, records of a sacred history, truths that have nothing to do with fact. I work in oil pastel but, because of the density and richness of the finished surface, consider the work as paintings. My work is not planned; the images come from within, they surprise and sometimes shock me."