Share your journey as an artist from the time you discovered your talent to where you are today.
As early as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to make something. From a small child I wanted to know how things were made and how to make them. In kindergarten we used our hand to draw a turkey for Thanksgiving. I looked around the room and found a picture of a turkey and drew it. The teacher asked if I traced it. I told her, “No, I “drew it.” She told me I shouldn’t lie and told my mother I lied to her. That memory has really stuck with me.
Growing up we didn’t have a lot. I would draw on any blank sheet of paper I could find. In middle school my composition notebook was filled with the backs of my classmates’ heads which I’d draw with a ball point pen while sitting in the back of class. Up to this point I’d never had a real art class.
Once I got to high school, I finally took an art class and my art teacher, Mrs. Studdard ran one of my drawings to the department head Dr. Manier. He introduced me to a brand-new world of artists who looked like me. Samella Lewis, Augusta Savage, Aaron Douglass, Laura Wheeler Waring, and Diego Rivera. I began studying these artists. I was then introduced to some great African American writers, as well. Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni and Countee Cullen. These artists and writers made it okay for a guy like me to dream of becoming an artist. It let me know that I wasn’t alone.
I guess from somewhere deep within I always knew drawing and painting were what I was really good at and although no one was looking at or buying the work, I always believed it had value. It was worth more than money could ever buy. It was a gift from God and my form of worship. I was determined to create the best work I could, to become better at my craft was, and still is the overriding factor in my life. Now, more than anything, I need to become a better businessman. I stink at it.
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