About
My name is David Sheffield (they/him) and I'm an 'interdisciplinary artist' which is a fancy way of saying that I've always been curious about the world and not afraid to try things. I grew up on the north side of a couple of Great Lakes in Ontario and now make my home in Northumberland County, east of Toronto. Like several generations behind me I'm a settler here and have benefitted at the expense of Indigenous Peoples.
My creative practice has grown out of long friendships with artists, writers, and assorted neighbours. Getting to know people whose lives have been conditioned by poverty and systemic injustice has deepened my understanding of community and what it means to live alongside one another. These encounters influenced my approach to oral history storytelling--as a shared process that pays particular attention to how personal stories are shaped by landscape, memory, and social conditions.
Some of my past lives have included grassroots community building, restoration painting (buildings, not canvases), video production, and farming. The in-between spaces are filled with supporting live music festivals like Cultivate, making Short Order Poetry, intentional coffee meetups, as well as a rich and lively family life.
I have long appreciated the work of artists like Leonard Cohen, Barbara Kingsolver, William Kurelek, Mary Oliver, Shelby Lee Adams, Over the Rhine, and John O'Donohue.
