"Painting a Whole New Life" - Brian Porter transforms tragedy into triumph.

9/29/2017


"I figured that if I was going to become someone new, I should be better than I used to be."

BRIAN PORTER

 

Brian Porter was able to transition from street Art to being a globally recognized Artist... In this striking and inspirational interview, Brian explains how his terrible accident actually started a transition for the better.

 

Interview courtesy of Pique News Magazine

 

He was a graffiti artist from his youth — hitchhiking across the country to do it, and going to Japan and Bali. He worked his way into murals and full-time art.

But his life shifted when he had a terrible factory accident in 2008; a bad fall that led to a brain injury. The art, which had for so long been a part of his life, was now on hold.

"It's all OK, God reset me," he says.

"When I was trying to get better, it nearly destroyed me. But a lady gave me the best advice. She told me, 'the old you is dead. You have to be reborn and accept who you are, what you're good at, what you're not good at. You have to figure out your limitations and become a new person.

I figure that if I was going to become someone new, I should be better than I used to be."

Brian Porter Aspen Art Gallery

What he did next was pure inspiration.

"When I hit my head, I was unable to draw at all. I spent about a year without drawing and one day I got to feeling that I really needed to fight for it," Porter recalls.

"I started locking myself in the house and forced myself to practice. I did everything. I practiced animals, I practiced figures, abstracts. I practiced everything I could and when I came up with a couple of really good pieces, I started touting them around art galleries and entered contests — and I was winning!"

An ambidextrous painter and drawer, Porter worked in Toronto and simultaneously started to get into galleries.

Brian Porter Aspen Art Gallery

Now 38, he gives a lot of credit to his gallery friends and agent for getting his work into people's homes.

"It has been pretty beautiful; I've been blessed," he says.

He paints on canvas now, but his past has provided experiences to use today.

"I learned a lot about colour and texture with graffiti. You're always painting on brick, or steel, or working around corners. I worked on vehicles. You have to be aware of edges," Porter says.

"My palette knife in my right hand and my brush in my left is pretty much how you paint."

 

Eagle - 60x36

Eagle - 60x36

We are proud to continue to display BRIAN PORTER's Art! 

Bian Porter Aspen Art Gallery