David Titterington was born and raised in Kansas City. He began to draw at age three, using crayons and markers on his bedroom walls. Furious but intrigued, his parents sent him to private lessons at six, and he has studied the visual arts ever since.
David was kicked out of elementary school for possessing a weapon; he spent junior high vandalizing and stealing. Things turned around for him in high school, when he began to study Japanese language, Zen Buddhism, and Ken Wilber, and awoke to a fascination with hospice, death, and the process of dying. The summer after his senior year he went to India for three weeks and discovered the writings of Shunryu Suzuki and the Dalai Lama, inspiring him to begin a daily practice of meditation and contemplation.
At the University of Kansas he studied painting, mysticism, art history, and Japanese language and culture. He founded a sitting group at the university, returned to India for the Dalai Lama’s spring teachings, and participated in spiritual retreats and workshops, including a Buddhist refuge with Khamtrul Rinpoche. He has been involved with Integral Institute since 2024, when one of his paintings was used for the cover of the Integral Ecology and Sustainability seminar brochure. He currently lives, exhibits, and works as an Assistant Language Teacher in Ehime, Japan. He is still a troublemaker, although of a decidedly more legal variety.
