Portal 2, Hawaii Island Juried Art Competition

David Spiher is an artist who lives in Hawaii and makes art—currently producing prints and painting. “I have been an assistant for a number of artists, designers and crafts people so I am really used to helping others make work. However, very often I have found it really hard to make my own, to justify my own choices, sometimes even to myself,” Spiher says. As a way to free himself from these self-imposed restrictions, he has shifted personae depending on subject matter and interest in various media. From 2004 to 2009, he produced hand-painted pornographic ceramic plates as Virginia Trembles. As David Six, he has been producing figurative painting and print work. A large body of work centers on his husband Dr. Ralph Thurlow and his struggle with HIVAIDS Neuro Dementia. "On a lot of levels I equate my experience of HIV/AIDS—for myself, my husband, lovers, friends and generation—with the flooding of New Orleans and the tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan. It sounds crazy because it was crazy… is crazy." Currently in Hawaii David is focused on a portraiture project of the actual people who live on Big Island and exploring the means of imagining a non-postcard view of the landscape.