Coming Out
Creating art is very therapeutic for me, the process of emptying my heart and soul into each piece I create helps me clear my head and sort myself out. Ever since I was a child I’ve used art as a way for me to deal with the bad times and enhance the good times, using colour and canvas as my form of expression. For over three decades I’ve been heavily influenced by graffiti, I love the bright colours and individual expression that go with this style of art. Letter bending and playing with colour has given me the foundation for how I approach my work in other mediums such as pencil crayon, acrylic and custom model trains.
The piece I created is titled Coming Out and was inspired by the workshop “Let’s Talk It Out : Sex Without Labels” I sat in on where we were asked to think about “outness” and to share some of those initial thoughts and feelings that came to mind, which I wrote down to use in my piece. With my background in graffiti I wanted to have some fun and create a colourful collage that would catch someone’s eye, drawing them in to have a closer look at the content. I decided to create a digital piece that I had printed onto a gallery canvas using high quality archival inks, which is hand signed and finished with a glossy protective top coat.
Being a graffiti artist, I’ve lived most of my life within a subculture of society with its own rules and standards (not so different than the LGBTQ+ subcultures). Respect goes a long way and just like hip hop, graffiti has generally been a very macho hyper masculine subculture. In my own personal experience though when I came out to my homies in the graffiti community I was accepted right away. People from all walks of life are a part of this subculture and I try to honour and respect my graffiti “family” with everything I do. Creating this piece reminded me of how scared I was to come out and how much weight was off my shoulders once I did. That feeling of being true to yourself, it’s the best!
I feel that as a publicly out, older mentor it’s my responsibility to be visible and to share my story so those who are still in the closet and scared can possibly look at me and see themselves. Maybe my story and my work will help someone feel comfortable within themselves, even proud of the person they are whether out or not.
Click here to watch the Summit 2020 session that inspired this piece.
Nathan Davis
Nathan NAZO Davis is a visual artist with roots in graffiti spanning over three decades. His vibrant colours and skillful techniques learned at an early age lend well to his current mediums of choice. From realistic animal portraits to custom model trains, from large scale murals and abstract paintings to digital illustration, Nathan’s work has evolved into an organic representation of what inspires him. Since moving to Victoria BC with his husband and fellow artist Kristofer Parley, into the Heart of Canada’s Oldest Chinatown, his surroundings became a muse from where his creativity flows.