Artist works with students to connect with community

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Richard Duarte Brown is soft-spoken and friendly, and one can’t help but feel comfortable with him.

As we sat down for coffee I could hardly picture this smiling man as a lonely child at 13, working at Wendy’s to support himself and struggling to discover his identity. But when he speaks of his life and art, he is sharp and incredibly passionate, remembering the minute details of myriad stories, and the names of the people who made him the artist he is today.

Brown was born in New York City, but moved to Columbus to live with a brother at a young age. A study in perseverance, he quit school to work at Wendy’s at the age of 13 to support himself. At the same time, he was going to night school at a nearby college, lying about his age to get into art classes. And while he later received his GED and served in the military, art was never far from his mind.

"Colors cry out to me, with a desire to be a part of a piece," he says. "I'm listening to the colors calling out. I hear colors screaming in my head."

Brown is an oil painter at heart, but his creations are far from traditional. With forays into mixed media, his pieces are built upon layers and layers of vibrant color. Sometimes, he isn’t even sure where the muse is taking him until paint is on the canvas.

And while he self-deprecatingly demurs that he’s always working on the technical aspects of his painting, the results are pieces that are evocative, soulful and surprisingly relatable. Looking into the eyes of one of his subjects, I felt that I could see myself in a person I didn’t even know.

Colors cry out to me, with a desire to be a part of a piece. I'm listening to the colors calling out.

The people are what it’s really all about, the driving factor behind all of his art – and, for that matter, all of his being. He speaks frankly of growing up without a father figure, and the impact that has had on him to this day, guiding his relationships with his family and the community he has built in Columbus.

“When I’m painting, I’m painting my way out of the traps that life brings,” he says. “When your motive is love, love reveals the way out.”

A father and husband, Brown’s family extends far beyond blood. He’s deeply involved in his community, especially with the younger people he comes in contact with. He finds they relate to him, to the struggles he faced and the absence of parental love, more easily than they can with other adults.

And he feels the undeniable pull to give others what he did not have as a child. In many instances, he has become something of a surrogate parent, often giving rides to school or jobs, lending an ear, or simply taking them out for a burger. He finds that car-ride conversations are often particularly cathartic, but it’s through art that he really finds connection.

Over the 2016-17 school year, he partnered with Whitehall-Yearling High School and Rosemore Middle School as part of the TeachArtsOhio program. He was an artist-in-residence of sorts, assisting with art classes and doing what he does best: using art to better connect people with their inner selves and with others.

With Brown’s help, the schools experimented with mediums that would especially engage youths, including airbrushing and screenprinting. Together, Brown and the students embarked on several projects, including a shoe-painting extravaganza. His eyes light up as he explains the way he watched the students come out of their shells to paint and create. And they, in turn, inspire him, and are the subjects of several of his paintings.

“Each kid I work with, each painting, the whole experience, they all gave me something that builds my character and teaches me what it is to be family, what it is to be human,” he says. “Every exchange you have, that’s where art is made.”

While there have been dark times, he is remarkably optimistic, if a little world-weary, and isn’t afraid to dream. It’s a quality that has served him well, as one of his dreams is close to coming true. As a child, he dreamed of a space where children and families could join together over art and activities, a safe space where abandonment does not exist and people could come to heal together. A space where he could teach and create with the people he loves.

That dream is opening this fall in the form of the newly remodeled Walter and Marian English Center for Art and Community. Located on Bryden Road in east Columbus, the facility offers art and dance classes weekly, as well as a chance for youths to gain entrepreneurial skills in different art professions. A part of the SURGE Columbus network, the center is a 20-year labor of love finally paying off, with a freshly renovated space optimized for endless creativity and youth engagement.

Each kid I work with ... they all gave me something that builds my character and teaches me what it is to be family, what it is to be human.

In the future, Brown sees himself painting more people, and continuing to use his art to bring people together. He is inspired by the moments of good that transpire in the midst of tragedy, something he vividly remembers following events that shaped his life as a black youth, such as the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. He feels a driving need to bring a sense of spiritual well-being to the world, as well as a desire to provide a voice to those who do not have the means of representing themselves.

“I will spend the rest of my days comforting humanity,” Brown says. “We are oral traditionalists by culture as African-Americans, but I want to paint people to tell a story.”

Layers of Life by Richard Duarte Brown

McConnell Arts Center

Oct. 19-Dec. 31

Opening reception 6-8:30 p.m. Oct. 19

In addition to work by Brown, the exhibition features pieces by some of the student artists he worked with in Whitehall.

Taylor Woodhouse is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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