David Rutter

Arte for Elephants Co-Founder,

Wildlife Photographer, Poet, Author, Political Journalist, Activist

Survivor, and Die-Hard Foodie! 

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Foundation in Performing Arts 

From an early age, it was apparent that David has a flair for the dramatic! His parents, realizing this, allowed him to audition for local theater productions where his natural charisma and booming speaking voice ensured his casting in local productions throughout his entire life! College was no exception. Following this passion, he enrolled in Humboldt State University in lovely Arcata, California, where he studied theater arts and participated in many creative productions. In the 1990's David and his fellow actors, traveled down to Los Angeles where they started their own Warehouse Theater Company in the just revitalizing Downtown, LA area. In addition to Davids participation in provocative, cutting edge productions David wrote and starred in an acclaimed one man show "Home Sweet Hell", appeared in several well regarded independent films and national television shows.   In addition to all-things theater, David participated in an experimental local band ( Magic Love Bag) lending his outrageous and uninhibited performance style to world famous venues around Hollywood!

 

Big Life Lessons 

Unfortunately, in the mid 1990's, while living the fast and wild life of a downtown artist, David slipped headlong into serious addiction that nearly cost him his life and plunged his being into incredible darkness. Thanks to his families intervention and with their support and encouragement, David checked into Cri-Help, a well regarded treatment center in Los Angeles. After painful detoxing process and months of agonizing self evaluation, including the 12- Steps, David left the treatment center and started working in ernest,  on his recovery. David is proud to have sponsored many people working to overcome addiction and to "pay it forward" he's used his experiences to coach and teach troubled young people at Los Angeles Youth Detention Centers, where he taught acting and writing to hardened gang members and former drug addicts. 

To date, David has been completely sober for 22 years!

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Professional Restauranteur

For decades before, during and after his recovery, David worked as a restaurant Manager, starting as a waiter and working his way up to General Manager for such well know Los Angeles Eateries as Mani's Bakery, Luna Park, Sunflower Cafe and others. His training in food preparation, management and logistics are some of the skills he taps daily as Co Founder of Arte for Elephants! 

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Author, Poet, Political Journalist

In 2011, David, found his voice as a Poet and decided to embark on a career as a professional Author and Poet. To date, David's poetry and short stories have been featured in over 50 publications including Haggard and Halloo, Wilderness House Literary Journal, Subliminal Interiors, Typehouse Magazine, Stone Path Review, Hello Horror and in 2012 he was chosen from over 1 million submissions to be featured in the first Los Angeles Times poetry competition! In addition to the written word, David has performed his Poetry via live readings at the renown Spider House Ballroom in Austin, Texas at the Annual Austin Poetry Festival, and in venues across Ventura County and Ojai. David's Poetry (under his pen name, Max Mundan) has been selected for publication by four prestigious publishing houses, the results of which are "I Will Only Write Poems for You", "Five Words That Can Cripple A Man" "Everyone is Broken" and "Junkies Die Alone".  

In 2017 he was tapped to be a regular contributor for the online publication, Inquisitr where he specialized in provocative, political pieces, activism and current events. To date- he is hard at work on additional books of poetry and a table top book of his amazing wild animal photographs! 

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Arte for Elephants Photographer

Since its inception in 2015, David has been an integral part of the vision and mission of Arte for Elephants! Inspired by our many travels he began photographing wildlife in earnest! His marvelous elephant photos form the basis for many of my paintings and drawings! He is also invaluable as the logistics specialist, mechanic, chief strategist, food expert and negotiator for every Arte for Elephants endeavor. His contribution is immeasurable! 

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