[ep 084] Donnel Garcia on giving time and care to your artistry

Donnel Garcia walks with a vibe of confidence, but it’s one that’s chill and observant. For many years, he was a careworker drawn to behavioural development programs, helping figuring out what people were good at and helping them create routines to integrate them back into society. Photography was a side hobby that became a career, working with clients like lululemon, Half Moon, Livestock, Vans Vault, and more. His work has also been widely shown in print and digital publications like Street Dreams Magazine. 

Sharing A Living Taste studio with a few other creatives and makers, he also launched an incredible community library of art, fashion, photography, and design books and magazines called Book Section, where they can be signed out for two weeks (returns are by an honour system).

He was born in the Philippines, immigrating with his parents to Canada when he was five. An only child, Donnel was often left to his own devices, catching the train downtown to explore solo and also playing sports, mainly basketball. After observing a careworker friend of his parents, he started to look into nursing programs and worked as a nurse for more than five years. It was meeting twin brothers, who quickly became his friends, that opened his world to photography, art, fashion, and music. When they eventually founded an agency, Donnel became their photographer, marking his transition into a new career and purpose.  

In this conversation, we wander through a wide range of topics: what people want from those who are caretaking for them; how his work as a nurse has translated into his career as an artist & photographer; observing patterns in the world, conversation & your interactions; Donnel’s approach to mentoring emerging photographers; why he’s taken a break from photography at the moment and recalibrating his vision; the honesty in his artistic point of view; and much more. 

[TIMESTAMPS]

6:02 - Growing up

7:29 -  How his parents navigated their transition to Canada

21:58 - Life after high school

27:40 - What people want from those taking care of them

33:20 - Patterns in culture that he is paying attention to in today’s world

47:11 - His process of mentorship

01:05:52- Being an artist versus a photographer

01:11:23 - Defining his point of view

01:21:31 - How his friends the Garcia twins contributed to his life’s journey

01:26:42 - What he wanted to say in the world with his last project

01:36:44 - Final wuestion

01:38:54 - Where to find him and Book Section

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