0033 - The Weight - Adrienne Brown-David - The Art of Life
Shownotes:
Art encapsulates powerful emotions and draws beauty out of everyday moments. Every portrait an artist paints serves as an opportunity to expand our humanity, allowing us to see the breadth and mystery of other human beings. In the age of social media, we have become devastatingly comfortable ascribing labels to one another and dehumanizing our brothers and sisters in Christ. Art helps us recapture the humanity of others while giving us a refreshing perspective on the vast scope of God’s creation.
Adrienne Brown-David’s artwork reflects the joys of motherhood and parenting, as well as the growth of her children as young black women in America. The majority of Adrienne’s work draws inspiration from her four daughters, capturing the richness of freedom and wonderment in childhood. Adrienne Brown-David emphasizes the beauty and individuality of black women primarily by using eyes as the centerpiece. The goal of Adrienne’s art is not for others to get something out of it, but rather to capture the fullness of emotion she pulls from photographs.
She joins Eddie and Chris to discuss the gift that art can give each one of us, the love she has for her daughters’ individuality, and the ways different forms of visual art make us feel. Adrienne acknowledges the way she must consider how her daughters are viewed by the world and the intersection she has always felt between her art and the larger social climate. They also speak about what it means to call Mississippi home and the importance of viewing Mississippi from both the inside and outside.
The Weight Afterthoughts
We've realized that a lot of great conversation actually happens AFTER we say goodbye to our guests and turn the microphones off. So, we decided to turn the mics back on (and a camera) and create a new segment called, Afterthoughts.
This will live on our new YouTube channel and you can find our Afterthoughts on this episode NOW!
Resources:
Follow Adrienne Brown-David on the web:
https://www.adriennebrown-david.com
Check out Adrienne Brown-David’s artwork here
Learn more about Adrienne Brown-David here
Read about Adrienne Brown-David in The Local Voice
Follow Adrienne Brown-David on social media:
Full Transcript:
Eddie Rester 0:00
I'm Eddie Rester.
Chris McAlilly 0:01
From the quarantine bunker, Eddie Rester, and I'm Chris McAlilly.
Eddie Rester 0:07
That's right. Welcome to The Weight. We're glad you're here. I'm actually not sitting with Chris, which I normally do because I am quarantined. So Chris, we're wrapping him in bubble wrap right now at the church so that he didn't get it because if he gets it... Oh, well.
Chris McAlilly 0:21
I guess we're, yeah, we're done. Well, I'm excited about this episode. We interviewed Adrienne Brown David, who is a local artist from Water Valley, Mississippi, and someone who has got just a wonderful body of work that we've enjoyed for a number of years.
Eddie Rester 0:46
In fact, I would encourage you, I know in all of the show notes, we're going to have links to a lot of her art and links to her Instagram. Why don't you to hit the pause button right now, go check out some of the art so that you have it in your mind, as you listen to the episode today. I think that would be important for you to do because, as we talk about the way that she paints her daughters and their eyes and faces, it'll help you conceptualize what she's talking about. She shouldn't just talk about art. She talks a lot about motherhood. She's an African-American woman raising Black women and the importance of that role for her. She really covers a lot of territory for us today.
Chris McAlilly 1:30
There's also the beauty of Mississippi that comes through her art in landscape. A lot of people choose to leave Mississippi, but she and her husband have chosen to live here, and we asked her about that at the end, why she continues to choose Mississippi. She answers that the end. I'm drawn to Adrienne's art because I feel that it expands our humanity and gives us a lens to see one another, I think, more clearly, in a time and a place when we feel distance from one another, and just it's hard to see one another and see one another's humanity. And I think that she gives us a way back into that.
Eddie Rester 2:16
It's a great episode. So make sure you listen all the way to the end and then share it, send it to other folks. Like it. Do all the things. Subscribe. I guess you should do that as well.
Chris McAlilly 2:29
All the things. Thanks. Thanks, guys. I hope you enjoy it.
Eddie Rester 2:33
[INTRO] Let's be honest, there are some topics that are too heavy for a 20 minute sermon. There are issues that need conversation, not just explanation.
Chris McAlilly 2:44
We believe that the church is called to engage in a way that honors the weightiness and importance of these topics for how we live faithfully today. We'll cover everything from art to mental health, social injustice to the future of the church.
Eddie Rester 2:55
If it's something that culture talks about, we need to be talking about it, too. [END INTRO]
Chris McAlilly 3:01
We're here today with Adrienne Brown David, an artist located in Water Valley, Mississippi now but originally from St. Louis, Missouri. She lives down in Water Valley with her husband and her four children. Welcome to the podcast today.
Adrienne Brown David 3:17
Thanks for having me.
Chris McAlilly 3:19
I am so excited.
Eddie Rester 3:22
I'm gonna out... Chris has been very excited about this. He loves your artwork. We're just really looking forward to kind of talk with you about your art and where that comes from and all that.
Chris McAlilly 3:34
Yeah, I saw your stuff for the first time at the art show down at the motel. What's that show called? I can never remember the name of it.
Adrienne Brown David 3:42
It's called One Night Stand.
Chris McAlilly 3:44
Yeah, tell folks about the One Night Stand and kind of the art community here in North Mississippi.
Adrienne Brown David 3:51
So One Night Stand is a show, a one night only show that happens in October. And one of my friends and neighbors in Water Valley, Erin Austen Abbott, curates the show every year. So she handpicks 10 or 11 artists. Each artist gets a room at the Ole Miss Motel to transform however they want. And so it becomes your own personal gallery space for the night. And artists come from all over. And so, you know, there's artists from all over the country that come there.
The art tends to be more accessibly priced than it would be at, say, like, a big gallery show. And so it attracts a lot of young people who are just, like, getting into art or just starting to buy their own original pieces and all, because it's more affordable. And usually there's some food, sometimes there's music. But it's one of my favorite shows every year, even though it's just one night, like, I look forward to it all year long. And I started out just going as a participant and then Erin and I met each other and, you know, she invited me and so I've been doing it for probably five years now.
Chris McAlilly 5:03
It's one of my favorite events in Oxford. And the night that we were there--I was there with my wife--I remember walking past the door of your gallery that night and I saw this painting. And I ended up messaging you on Instagram; you probably don't remember this. But it was of... there was a field, and it was kind of a yellow field and a bright, vivid blue sky. And then there was a young girl who was swinging on
Adrienne Brown David 5:31
Oh, I remember, you messaging me for that. Because it was when? The night of the show?
Chris McAlilly 5:37
Yeah, yeah. I remember you saying that it wasn't complete. But it was stunningly beautiful. And you can, I think find it on... we'll post the link to your Instagram, and I think it's actually if you scroll back down a while back. But it was, I feel like kind of one of those... It was beautiful. It was hopeful. And there was just a very free, young, Black girl swinging. And it just, I don't know. There was something about it that really struck me. I wonder if you could talk about that painting in particular and then just about your work in general, kind of what you do with your art.
Adrienne Brown David 6:14
Um, well that painting in particular now lives in London. So somebody in London saw it and also loved it, and so it is one of the few pieces I have overseas. It's in a private collection in London now. But the majority of my work right now focuses on my girls. I have four daughters. I feel like a lot of time, like, in my early motherhood/art balance, my art didn't really reflect motherhood at all. And so it was sort of this dichotomy between me being a mom and me being an artist. And at some point along the way, it shifted to my girls and motherhood and girlhood, and their girlhood in particular being the main focus of my work, and so it sort of evolves over time as my kids evolve.
So when they were younger, a lot of the work looked like that: like, kids on swings, the girls like out in field because that's what their childhood looked like. And all of the paintings come directly from experiences with my kids, and so that's what that looked like. But as I get older, my work is starting to evolve a little bit. As they grow, the work grows. And so because I have teenagers--three of the four are teenagers--and so their experience with me and their experience with growing up and youth and girlhood looks different than it did when they were 12 and 10, and 8, 6, or however old they were. But I've made parenting and mothering and the growth of my girls, particularly as young Black girls in America, the main focus of my painting. For my gallery work, I do a lot of other stuff too. But that's my main focus for that type of work.
Eddie Rester 8:19
How do they feel about being featured in your work across multiple years of their lives, different stages of their lives?
Adrienne Brown David 8:28
I don't think they know any different. They have noticed that my youngest gets painted a lot more often than any of the rest of them. And they do point that out. But I also remind them that she gets painted more often because she is the only one who allows me to take pictures without acting like a huge deal, or, like, eye rolling and making faces or trying to hide. And so I'm like, "I can only paint from what I have the source for. So if you don't let me take pictures, you don't end up in paintings." Outside of that, I don't think they know any different just because I've always painted and I've always used them. Like, I think they just assumed that that's what people whose parents are artists do.
Chris McAlilly 9:18
That's the way I grew up. I was a preacher's kid and my dad used to feature me in his sermons. I was like, you know, at a certain age I started get a bit annoyed at that, you know,
Adrienne Brown David 9:28
You were like, "Don't take my picture."
Chris McAlilly 9:31
That's right.
Eddie Rester 9:34
So you're based out of Water Valley, said you've been there about five years. You said you grew up in St. Louis, your husband grew up in I think you said Washington DC. So talk a little bit about what it's like to raise children in a place that's vastly different than the places you or your husband grew up. What's it like for you in small town Mississippi?
Adrienne Brown David 9:56
It's been interesting. It has its pluses and minuses, of course. The bonus is that my kids have had a freedom in their childhood that my husband and I never had. Like, they ride bikes all over town. They play in the woods. My youngest knows all of the birds and plants and bugs that live in the entire state. So they have a freedom that we didn't have growing up. But at the same time, there's a lack of diversity that my husband and I had growing up.
I grew up going to theater, going to museums going to art galleries, seeing people from all over, eating food from all over, experiencing things from all over the world. And my girls don't have that when we're here. We're fortunate to be able to travel a lot. And so they get a lot of exposure. We spend a lot of time in DC. We spend a lot of time in St. Louis. And so they get to have some of those things that my husband and I had growing up that they don't necessarily have every day.
And those things are great, but they also come with the lack of freedom. I definitely was not riding my bike wherever I wanted to, growing up in the city. I knew nothing about outdoors. Trees? I don't know, they're brown with leaves on top. Like that's about all I had, as far as that goes. And so it's a weird balance that we have to strike where they appreciate the land and the freedom and the pace of living here but understand that there's a world much bigger, and much different outside of this little bubble that we live in.
Eddie Rester 12:01
I was raised in a real small town in Mississippi, a little town called Ackerman--about 1500 people, so even much smaller than Water Valley. But one of the gifts our parents gave us was what it sounds like y'all are giving your kids, which is "we're going to go to places to find the things that we can't find in Small Town, Mississippi." It's not a knock, I love my town. I absolutely loved growing up there. But having parents who said, "You know what? In order for your education to be complete, your view of the world to be more complete, we're going to get you out of Mississippi and provide opportunities for you to get out of Mississippi." And for me, that was important to see Mississippi from the inside but also Mississippi from the outside, I guess.
Adrienne Brown David 12:49
Yeah, and my kids are all old enough now to know that there is something else outside of here and to crave that. My older girls in particular crave the museums and the bookstores and all of the things and just seeing people that they don't see every day. They crave that regularly. My youngest is a little more, like, you know, "I'll play in the dirt, run around in the rain, and be fine," but even she's getting to a point where she's like, "So when are we going to DC again? I want to go see this art show. Is there something that we can go see that's close by?" I appreciate them not only having that experience because we have given it to them but are now craving that experience for themselves.
Chris McAlilly 13:46
I want to stick with the parenthood and the motherhood theme a little bit and go a little bit deeper within that. You homeschool, in addition to being a professional artist, and you chose that. Talk through how you made that decision and kind of what's awesome about it and what some of the challenges are as you pursue your work.
Adrienne Brown David 14:12
So we have homeschooled since my 19-year-old was three. This was when we lived in the Caribbean, and it's kind of a thing that a lot of people deal with. Anyway, the schools, the public school system, there wasn't really great. Private School was really, really expensive. We were young and could not afford to put two very small children into private school on an island. And so I was like our only other option is to homeschool. Because otherwise I'm just going to work to pay tuition for preschool, which doesn't make any sense to me. And so we opted to homeschool and this was back when we just had my two oldest kids they were three and 18 months. Probably And so we started with preschool. And we were like, we'll just play by ear every year. And so we continue to homeschool, while living in St. Croix. And then we moved to Mississippi and it was sort of the same thing. It was like, Oh, the schools here aren't great. Um, and there really wasn't a private school option that I knew about. And so we just sort of kept going with what we were doing. Um, and it just sort of stuck. Like, we've had one year where I used to work at the Montessori School. That's an Oxford now but it was in Taylor when I first started. So I used to work at the Montessori school part time and so one year, three of my four girls went to the Montessori school. And all of us really just preferred homeschooling, but like the my youngest was not happy. My older two that were there were kind of like, man, whatever, I missed my homeschool group. And so it just became a part of who we are. And so it just kind of stuck. And then, you know, my oldest at ninth grade was like, I think I'm, I'm ready to go to public school. Like, I'd like some other friends. I'd like to meet some new people. I'd like to experience public schools. And we were like, all right, and so we put her in school. And so that became the that became the routine. And so when my 17, my now 17 year old got to like second semester of eighth grade, we were all like, yes, I'm for you to go.
And for her.
She started public schools, second semester of eighth grade. And so now we are just homeschooling our two youngest, so I have eighth grader and a sixth grader. And my eighth grader, we had discussed her going to public school this year, but with all of the other things that have been happening, we're just like this year probably is not the best year for us to decide to put you in school for the first time ever.
Eddie Rester 17:13
Not school, it's not Yeah, it's different.
Adrienne Brown David 17:15
No. So I was like you're probably going to be in a situation where you might just be distance learning, in which case, we can just stick with homeschooling, because it's easier. And I'm not on anybody else's schedule. Like with a distance learning, I have to use somebody else's curriculum. And you have to be that and so just like adults to do that.
Just stick with what we're doing.
Eddie Rester 17:42
Has the pandemic impacted your art in any way? Has it changed anything that you offer or ways that you are...
Adrienne Brown David 17:54
So I don't think the pandemic has changed my art in any way the art market has changed a little bit, I think, because people are spending less money on other things, they're more willing to spend a little more money on artwork. And so my, my career has changed much in the pandemic, which has been interesting, which was really unexpected. I expected it to be like, Oh, the whole world is on fire. Nobody's trying to buy paintings. But actually, people are like, the whole world is on fire. I need something to make me feel better about life. And so, you know, it hasn't really changed a whole lot. I mean, I have a lot more time on my hands to paint, which is nice.
Chris McAlilly 18:39
I think it's talking about the world being on fire. You know, I think there are multiple dimensions of that, of course, driven by the pandemic first off there's economic disruption, social unrest across the country. It's been a hard, what was that? And literal fire? Yeah, yeah, there's, there's literally fire and I think, as an artist, you know, as an artist who features your daughter's young black women growing up in America, particularly in Mississippi, I guess, how do you think about the convergence of kind of your larger concerns about the state of affairs in the nation, kind of your hopes for your daughters? And then how that contributes to the way that you... How does your art, I guess, contribute to the way you think about those larger concerns and the way you parent?
Adrienne Brown David 19:33
So for me, nothing is different. Like social unrest has always been a part of my existence as a black person in the United States. Like none of that has changed for me. And so my artwork and raising my children are also not different. Like I have always had to take into consideration what my kids are how my kids are perceived by the world, even before everybody else had to think about how my kids were perceived by the world. And so there's no, there's no new intersection, in my work at all, that has always been my work. My work has always been about the humanity of blackness in America, even when I did not have children. Um, and so I don't feel like that's any different, because I don't feel like my life is any different. And I don't feel like the world is any different. Like, it's, this is what it's always been. And so this is what I've always seen. And so this is what I've always expressed. So,
Chris McAlilly 20:43
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I mean, I think the, you know, I hear it in kind of other black artists, whether it's, you know, folks who are writing or, or doing music or film or different dimensions, like how do you express in your art, I guess the beauty of blackness, the freedom and, I think the thing that about your art that I and I think particularly the way in which you, you have a rich understanding of of what you're going for, for your daughters in the direction of freedom, you know, that I just see it coming through in your art. And particularly, in the way that you, I don't know, there's faces, I think that when I when I think of your art, I think about faces, and you have just a unique way of showing the humanity not only of your daughters, but of everyone you paint. But I guess I'm wondering kind of how you think about your art contributing to just kind of giving folks an opportunity to see what it is to be young and free for your children.
Adrienne Brown David 22:02
Um, I, I've never been a person who has really known or understood what people get from my work, like, I work for me more than anything else. And so like, I appreciate that people get things and see things and feel things. But that's not ever I do what I do. Like, this is what I do. This is what I feel this is what I see. And so like, I hope that you get something from it. But my goal is not to paint for people to get something if that makes any sense. Like, I want you to recognize what I'm doing. I want you to see what I'm doing. I want you to feel something I want you to
Eddie Rester 22:48
Adrienne, we've kind of lost you for a second here. Oh, she's gone completely.
Chris McAlilly 22:56
Oh, man, the zoom thing is not our friend today.
Eddie Rester 23:01
You're back? Well, if you can just start the answer to that question, again, that Chris was asking about?
Chris McAlilly 23:07
Yeah, I was just asking the wider the wider question about what people perceive in your art. And you and I, you were, that was a great answer about you know, I do this for me, I'm putting this into the world, what you see is what you see, but what I'm doing is what I'm doing for myself.
Adrienne Brown David 23:22
Right? I paint for myself, like, I care about what people get from the imagery, like, I want you to feel something, I want you to get something but I'm not actually trying to make you get something. Everything I paint, I paint it because that's what I wanted to paint. That's what I felt. That's what I was thinking about. That's what I thought was beautiful in that moment. Um, and so I do all of those things for me. And so a lot of times if I, if I paint something, and I put it out there, and people are like, Oh, so what are you trying to say with this painting? I'm always like, well, what are you getting from it? Because it's, you know, when I paint and I paint for me, that meaning is for me, that, you know that feeling is for me, what you get is totally yours. And so I don't really have any intention for viewers with my work like, but I appreciate that you get something from it, that you feel something from it, but that might not necessarily be the same thing I get and that's fine. It's actually really beautiful. I love that. I love when I feel something about a painting and somebody else feel something incredibly different. Like I think that's super powerful. And so yeah, my intention is often just to paint what I feel like painting in that moment. And what people get is what they get in that moment.
Eddie Rester 24:50
You know, what I get out of your paintings is just the way... something in the eyes. I'm not even sure I can explain what it is. But there's a piercing sense in the eyes that is powerful. Now I'm not, you know, I don't know if you intend that or not but or maybe it's just a way that I am reacting to your paintings, but there always seems to be something around the face and the eyes that helps communicate through your art. Is that a consistent way people respond to your art? Has that always been, or is that something as you painted your daughters that's kind of come to be?
Adrienne Brown David 25:35
It's a consistent focus in my work, the eyes are always my favorite part of any person's face. And portraiture has always been my focus, even when I was really young. And so, because portraiture is my focus, I spend a lot of time looking closely at people's faces. But eyes have always been super powerful for me, because they convey so much like there's so much that a person's face can communicate without words, but the eyes communicate like 80% of that for me. And so it's always the main focus. It's usually the first thing I finish in the painting is the eyes and then I finish the rest of the face around it. And so yeah, that's purposeful. But it's purposeful, because that's what I like.
Chris McAlilly 26:29
I was just gonna jump in and ask you a question about process. I appreciate the kind of I that was one of the questions I was wondering about is when you're when you're doing a portrait kind of where you, you know, where you start, and how you... I see the layers of color that you're clearly kind of, you know, piling on to the painting to get that depth of expression. Can you talk a little bit about that process.
Adrienne Brown David 26:57
Um, so usually, like, I'm not really a person who is like a sketchbook person, sometimes artists are really big on like, doing some sketches in their sketchbook working it out, mapping it out, like I have a sketchbook, I draw my sketchbook but usually it's not for anything else. So that's not a huge part of my process. I usually work from photographs. I take tons and tons and tons of pictures all the time. And so I usually work with those. And sometimes I just go through my million photographs and pick out ones that stand out to me for whatever reason, it could be the composition, it could be facial expression, it could be body language. And I keep a little folder of all of the photos that I love. And I revisit them and see what strikes me at the time. And then I usually just start with like a blue sketch on canvas, and then go in with an under painting, typically read or Sienna, under pining to get the lights and shadows in. And then I just sort of go for it after that with oil paint
on top.
Chris McAlilly 28:13
What does a painting do that photograph can't?
Adrienne Brown David 28:19
So a photograph for me captures a moment just like, just as that moment is, there's no, I mean, there's feeling to it. But for me, I feel like my photography has one type of feeling. And my paintings have another. And I feel like my paintings are more personal. Even if they are almost a direct replica of the photograph, it feels more personal than just a picture. And so for me, I feel like there's more of myself in a painting in one of my paintings, than there is in one of my photographs.
Eddie Rester 28:59
I was looking through your Instagram. And in fact, I'm scrolling through it right now again, to see some pictures of of life but also some of the pictures that have become art. And there's one of one of your daughters that looks like standing in the front yard. Head up just kind of screaming at the world. That's become a painting for you. Yeah. In the thing is the painting she's in a wide open space and field in so there's this starkness to her presence in the painting that wasn't there in the original picture. And so, what as you begin to move from picture to painting, kind of how do you redefine kind of what's going on? What is it just kind of where you are in the moment or what you begin to feel from your child and the picture? How do you make that?
Adrienne Brown David 30:00
So, it depends on what I'm going what what I have going on at the moment. So with that particular picture, that is the only photo I have ever posed of one of my children, because I had the theme for that painting. And the theme for that painting was when nature speaks. And when I heard the theme that was immediately the image in my head was of one of my kids screaming. And so I had to pose her for that picture, which was a process in itself, because I never do that. And my youngest gets really weird in front of a camera, if she knows you're taking a picture. And so, I took her out in the yard and was like, I need you to scream, but not really scream because it's quiet. So I need you to just pretend the scream. And what would that look like if you get to screen and if it was a whole process, but she finally got it down. But typically, I just take pictures of my kids as they're doing stuff, like just what they would be doing regularly. And if the feeling I'm having about the painting is I want this painting to be about freedom, I usually take that photograph, um, and put it with one of the hundred million pictures of delta landscapes that I also have from just driving around Mississippi. Usually, when we drive around, I make my kids sit in the back with my phone and take pictures out the window as we're traveling so that I can use them later. And so I usually put those two things together. Because my kids have a lot of freedom, but they're not always in the middle of a giant field. And so, I like to add those, those two things just for that sense of like space and openness. But that's not always the focus. So as my kids get older, a lot of times their attitude is what I want to capture in the work. And so that is less like the background and the space is less important. And so those pictures tend to have less space, less landscape and more just sort of starkness because the attitude is what I'm trying to capture more than the wonderment of childhood because those are like those changes in teenagers are also really important. And so I want to capture those and not like, try and squash that or ignore that or not remember these times where they are stressing me out and driving me crazy, because that's part of them, like developing into women. And so I've figured that as they get older, I'll just keep painting them. And eventually I'll just be painting pictures of like adult women for what it means to mother, adult women. So
Eddie Rester 33:10
maybe grandchildren one day, who knows,
Adrienne Brown David 33:12
yeah, maybe and maybe we'll start all over like a cycle.
Eddie Rester 33:15
You know, I'm glad to hear that. That's not just my daughters who can cause major attitude at some point, I don't want to when they get
Chris McAlilly 33:25
I'm interested in I wanted to before I mean, I get into the teenage years and the adult years I think is important. But I want to come back to this landscape idea because this is another theme of your art that I find fascinating when I also grew up in Mississippi and spent time away. And I think when I you know, I just I always I had an eye for the beauty of other places. And I admit that I've struggled at times to find an eye for the beauty of Mississippi. But as I've come back, I think that it's the spaciousness, especially in this part. I mean, there's kind of Hill Country and a lot of woods. But when you get over into the Delta, there's a spaciousness to the sky and the space just feel so grand.
Adrienne Brown David 34:09
There's so much sky,
Chris McAlilly 34:11
There's so much sky. Then you've you have sunsets and just the fog rolling over the fields and then you've got just just these Mile High storm clouds that will crop up in the in the late summertime. Have you always had an eye for the for nature? Is that just coming to Mississippi or I guess also the islands. That's another feature of the islands a lot of times you get the spaciousness of the sky.
Adrienne Brown David 34:43
Yeah, I definitely didn't have that growing up in St. Louis. St. Louis is great. It is not beautiful. But it's fine. Like it's a cool city. There's stuff to do. Um, and so I never really thought about nature that much. Like, I went on one camping trip as a teenager, in like rural Missouri. But growing up in the city, like you don't venture out into the country in Missouri, like it's dangerous. It's not something that you do. Like, particularly as a black kid in St. Louis, like you are not going out in rural Missouri. That is militia country, you may not come back. Yeah. And so that was just not a thing that we did. And so moving, the St. Croix was really where I developed an appreciation for being outside because you could be outside in a situation that wasn't dangerous. Like, I spent the majority of my day outside. Like, I lived on the beach, I walked everywhere, I ate fruit off of trees that were between my house and town when I had to walk and stop and grab a mango, like, that was not something that I ever did, there was a rain forest there, I've never even been close to a rain forest, let alone in one or riding my bike through one. Um, and so that like, connection to Earth didn't happen for me until I moved to an island when I was 21. And so I really started to pay more attention to that. It just wasn't something that I paid attention to when I was younger, because you know, nature and outside and wide open spaces were just what you drove through to get to the next city. But it wasn't something that you spent any time in. It was just like, "Oh, I'm going from St. Louis to Kansas City, that means three hours of fields, like that's my naptime. Like, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna pay any attention to that." And so it's definitely something that I've developed an appreciation for as an adult. And then even more so as a parent, like having kids who also appreciate who had that as a part of their childhood. When I did, like, they want to stop and look at things I want to be outside. They want to know about, you know, the bugs and the flowers and the trees, and how things change. And you know, all those things that I just didn't have grown up.
Eddie Rester 37:25
So when did you start painting? When did you discover this gift that you have are beginning to cultivate this gift that you have?
Adrienne Brown David 37:34
So I've been drawing since preschool. So I started out drawing, it was just always something that I did. And my family saw that it was something that I did. So when I was a little like little little kid, my grandmother used to keep all of her paper grocery bags, and like the little cardboard inserts that will come in her pantyhose packages, which were my favorite because they were white, like stark white and smooth. She would keep those Yeah, yeah. It's to keep those and crayons for me as a kid because she knew I like to draw. And I drew and made things all the time. I would draw on the sidewalk outside of our house with like little chunks of brick because again, lived in the city. And those weird white gravelly rock things. And so I just drew on everything and with everything all the time. And so that just was always a part of who I was. It was never, there was never a question about whether or not I should draw could draw would draw. It just always, it was always a part of who I was. And so I did not paint. I didn't start painting until I moved to St. Croix. I tell people all the time, my mother totally encouraged my art and all of that, but she was not a fan of messes. And so paint was not a thing that I had a lot of growing up. And so initially, initially, I used graphite and colored pencil like those were my main two mediums. I drew everything with those. And then when I moved out on my own, and I moved to St. Croix, I got a job at an art supply store. And so I just I bought stuff and I started experimenting with painting and I did a lot of mixed media stuff and like collage with painting on top and portraits and just all sorts of things. And so I've been painting ever since I probably didn't start oil painting until maybe my first daughter or maybe my second daughter was born so I might have been 24 and I can say that beginning oil painting with two very small children is probably not the best plan because oil paint is very hard to get out of anything. I've been painting for probably 20, like oil painting for probably 20 years. Man, that is crazy to say.
Eddie Rester 40:13
It goes by fast.
I have a 19 year old like you, and you look back, and you're like I thought I was still 25. But, apparently, I'm not 25 anymore.
Chris McAlilly 40:23
When you think about cultivating the passions of your daughters and your children in a particular direction, how do you how do you think about that you? What do you hope for when, when your daughter's or your age?
Adrienne Brown David 40:41
So for me, I don't I tell my kids all the time, I'm the parent who will invest in whatever you're interested in, like, just do it. And so I don't really have any sort of like direction I want them to go. I just want them to know that whatever it is, they're interested in, I'm going to invest in it. And so of my four children, like they're all very, very, very different from one another. And so my oldest is going to go into physical therapy. She was a dancer for many years, and then had to go to physical therapy and just changed her life or something. So she went from being like, I'm going to be a professional dancer, to I'm going to be a physical therapist, and I was like, Alright, cool. My 17 year old has wanted to be an attorney since she was three. How or why a three year old, even knows the word attorney, I have no idea, but she was very specific that she was going to be an attorney that has now shifted, I'm not sure where she's going now. But for the majority of her life, she, you know, wanted to be an attorney. And so like, Alright, so that's what we're doing. My 13 year old sort of all over the place, she's a theatre kid for a while, and like, it's really into books and film and all that. And so I try and nurture that. My youngest is the wild child, she could be anything from a vet veterinarian to a boxer to a roller derby champion, like, it could be any number of things. And so I'm really just interested in going along for the ride to see where they end up at my age, but I don't really have any, any aspirations for them. And that sounds weird when you say it as a parent. But in all honesty, I just want them to make that decision and go in that direction. And I'm interested to see what they do with that direction that they take on their own, I don't really want to have anything to do with that. I want them to make that decision. And I'm gonna like I'm going to support it, whatever it is. But I really don't want to have any say so in that unless they want me to have some space. Like if they ask my advice, I will tell you, but like, I just I'm interested in to see what decisions they make for themselves
as they become older.
Chris McAlilly 43:24
As we're kind of wrapping up here. I think one of the things that's most interesting about your story to me is that you chose... you choose Mississippi. Not everybody does. You know a lot of people are trying to get away? Why choose this place? I mean, you chose it initially, but then I guess you probably, every time you make a trip back to St. Louis or DC, you choose I'm sure that there's a pull I can hear it in, you know your desires for your your daughters and your children to see a larger world. Why do you continue to choose Mississippi, choose water Valley, as a place to raise your family and to explore a family and a life and a career.
Adrienne Brown David 44:06
So I say we choose Mississippi, but I also think Mississippi keeps choosing us. Like we have tried to leave so many times. So every time we try to leave, we get an opportunity that makes us stay. And so there's something about this place that is holding us here. And I mean, even up until a year ago. A year ago, we were planning to move to DC we're just like if that's going to be where we end up, like what is the purpose of us, you know, bouncing around, like let's just go back to DC. We had even told my husband's family. We were you know, looking at place, coming back to DC. And then we got the opportunity to buy this house really, really cheap. So we were like well We could move to DC and go broke trying to figure out how to survive in DC or we could buy this house for nothing and just stay in this house for a little while. And so we bought our house. And then six months later, the world exploded. And I was like, could you imagine if we were in DC right now in an apartment, all six of us, with both of us having to leave to go to work, and nobody being able to go outside like we would kill each other. So I feel like Mississippi keeps choosing us as much as we keep choosing to stay here. And so eventually, you know, either one of us will stop choosing the other, and we'll do something else. But for right now,
Eddie Rester 45:54
I'm glad you've chosen Mississippi and I'm thankful that Mississippi can continues to choose you. I'm thankful for your art and your story and, and hopefully we'll get to bump into you one day when we're down in water Valley.
Adrienne Brown David 46:06
Right, cool.
Chris McAlilly 46:08
Thanks so much, Adrian. Thanks for being with us today on the podcast.
Adrienne Brown David 46:11
Thanks for having me.
Eddie Rester 46:13
Thank you for listening today. Go ahead and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. And go ahead and hit the subscribe button on whatever platform you use to listen to podcasts.
Chris McAlilly 46:23
This wouldn't be possible without our partner general Board of Higher Education and ministry. We want to thank also our producer Cody Hickman, follow us next week. We'll be back with another episode of the wait