ABOUT THE ARTIST

MISSION & Vision

My life mission is to create transformational art that advocates for racial justice, interracial healing and community enrichment. My Black community of Rondo is rich with inspirational stories and challenging historical memories. It also absorbs and responds emphatically to the traumas of racial justice that impact all Americans, whatever their “race” and background. Employing a wide variety of artistic techniques— portraiture, collage, mixed media and informational graphics— my art translates these stories and memories into high impact visual experiences that inspire and challenge my viewers to reexamine their preconceptions and commit themselves to promoting racial healing. In the final analysis, I consider myself a teacher, a healer and a moral guide and role model, particularly for younger people.

COMMUNITY WORk

Accounting for my specific contributions to those around me requires a listing that spans at least five decades. It begins at age seventeen while being mentored at the Saint Paul Pioneer Press by the incomparable Charles Schultz, a master analyst of the human condition. His influence and schooling from several former Walt Disney artists made me into the artist/educator/activist that I am today. That’s because they insisted that socially relevant art should always be located on the “cutting edge,” reverberate throughout the viewing public, and advocate for our common humanity. My contributions to the pages of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Minnesota Spokesman Recorder and the University of Minnesota Daily are the direct result of this initial inspiration. So is the recognition I recieved when being named recipient of the Minnesota National Newspaper Graphic Arts Award.

Here is the partial listing of organizations that have benefitted from exhibiting and purchasing of my work:

  • The late Coretta Scott King

  • The late Johnny Cochran

  • The late Vidal Sassoon

  • Dave Winfield, Baseball Hall of Famer

  • Patrick Ewing, New York Knicks

  • Trentt Tucker,  Ny Nicks, Minnesota Timberwolves

  • B.J. Armstrong, Chicago Bulls

  • Dr. Charles E Crutchfield Sr.

  • Dr. James Brewer Stewart, Historian, Macalester College

  • William Mitchell College of Law

  • General Mills

  • Blue Cross Blue Shield

  • Ujamma

  • St. Paul Pioneer Press

  • University of Minnesota Diversity Dept.

  • Mount Olivet Missionary Church

  • Shiloh Baptist Church

  • New Hope Baptist Church

  • St. Albans Church

  • Higherground  Academy school

  • Esquires Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs

  • Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

  • Rondo Community Library

  • Hennepin County Hospital

  • University of Minnesota Community Research Center

  • St Paul High School for the Recording Arts

  • Minneapolis Urban League

  • Walker West Music Academy (Founded by Donald’s brother Carl Walker)

  • White Bear Lake Community Arts Center

  • American Indian OIC Education and Career Center

  • March for Dimes

  • Trent Tucker, “II For Kids Foundation”

  • Dave Winfield, Student Athlete Foundation

  • Alan Page Foundation

  • Minnesota Metropolitan State University

art matters

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art matters *