VISUAL DOPE Ron Brown

Visual Art – Minneapolis

Artist Statement As an artist, I don’t necessarily strive to push the envelope, it just happens to often be a by-product of the art itself. For me, art is as essential as food and water; it is my stress relief from the daily grind. I am traditionally an illustrator, but have found myself steering toward watercolor, oil painting, multimedia, music, fashion design, and the use of recycled material- all of which continue to take me outside the proverbial box. My art style I consider Afrofuturism/Afro-anime, and enjoy illustrating my own children’s character, superheroes ,and the female form, as inspired by African and Hip Hop cultures. Artists I whose work I respect include Gordon Parks, Alex Ross, Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Romita Jr., various graffiti artists, Marvel comics in general, and pure Hip Hop in all its various forms. I want people to think about my art, but more than that, I want them to feel, Something, anything,… giving pause to the every day, and imagining the infinite possibilities behind what we experience with our five sense alone. My work has been showcased and displayed at many Twin Cities’ area establishments and galleries such as The Abstracted group shows, Smitten Kitten art shows, Intermedia Arts’ 55408 and The Arts of Community shows, Macalester College- The Colored Museum, the St. Paul Art Crawl, a solo show at Homewood Studios in North Minneapolis, and the Big Blaq exhibit with the TAWU artist group. My goal and hope for a lasting legacy is to expand this list exponentially, locally, nationally, and worldwide.