Sharing his talent

At the edge of Five Points, a waterfront sunset scene painted on the side of a brick building is an unexpected wonder in one of New Bern’s poorest neighborhoods.

A police car’s siren blares from a few blocks away, and the temperature hasn’t yet made it to 50 degrees on this overcast day. But Derrick Bryant stands near the top of his ladder on Queen Street and paints anyway, oblivious to cold or sound or anything beyond the detail of his sky, his sunset or his downtown buildings in the piece he has created.

Most of the mural was done with a roller, and in just two days. But now, he comes back to it with a smaller brush, to make sure the details are right. His hands are smooth, not calloused, and their movements are almost imperceptible as he works.

“The trick is not to rush,” he says. “I hold the brush as if I’m caressing a woman. I respect her, and she respects me back.”

This mural on the side of a hair salon is the largest art project that the New Bern native has ever done, but he hopes it will be the first of many for his home city. Bryant and his fellow artist Artie Barksdale just opened the Red Mass Art Gallery in downtown Durham, but his next dream is to start a program aimed at encouraging creativity in Craven County’s children.

Bryant and his partners have done something similar in Durham, during an event called Colorfest. Their artwork, a mural, was divided into 32 pieces, each one painted by a child. The piece was then reassembled, and will be donated to a nonprofit organization.

“My goal is to pull kids out of the neighborhoods and to show them they can do whatever they put their minds to,” Bryant said. “I think art is especially conducive for teaching that lesson, because you give kids a piece of a mural or something, some ownership, and tell them to do whatever they want to with it. It gives them confidence and it turns out beautifully.”

Bryant, who is 29, has done artwork for basketball standout Jerry Stackhouse, for actress Rosario Dawson and for rapper Snoop Dogg. But he wants his legacy to be about making communities better, especially the place where he has spent most of his life.

“I used to sketch in class at Grover C. Fields Middle School,” he said. “One of the teachers caught me one day, and she told me I was good, and I really should channel it and go after it.”

By the time Bryant was in 10th grade at New Bern High School, he was even more focused on his art, and he entered a contest at a local pet spa.

“I got third place,” he said. “I did a picture of a lounging dog. I think I didn’t win because he had a cigar in his mouth. That probably didn’t go over well coming from a 15-year-old. I think I would have won if not for the cigar.”

In college, it was Willie Hooker, a professor at North Carolina A & T University, who “actually pushed me to go farther,” Bryant said.

“He told me to take what I have, to learn what I can, and give back at every opportunity,” Bryant said. “I think about that every day of my life.”

Bryant honed his skills doing graduate work in California.

“I learned that my work is based on geometry; I learned the rules,” he said. “Once you learn the rules, you can bend them.”

Bryant is an illustrator, a portrait painter, a lover of oils and inks, and an artist who is always looking for the next challenge.

“I don’t sleep much,” he said. “An idea hits me and I have to get up. I really hit my stride in the wee hours of the morning, when most of the world is asleep.”

For a while, he did graphics for IBM. But life in a cubicle wasn’t for him.

“It can’t be about money, whatever you do,” he said. “Everything good starts with passion.”

That’s what drove him to do the mural on Queen Street, on the wall that is just about diagonal from the now-defunct Days Hotel. He got all the paint from a recycling center in Bridgeton, then mixed and manipulated several cans of it until he got just the colors and textures he wanted.

“I’m trying to be economical and green,” he said. “Whatever I don’t use, I’ll take back for someone else.”

As Bryant surveyed his work, Deborah Green walked by, carrying her groceries on the way back to her home near Craven Terrace, New Bern’s public housing.

“You’re the one who did this?” she asked him, and Bryant nodded.

“You’ve got some real talent, boy,” she told him. “I sure am glad you put it out here for the world to see.”

Nikie Mayo can be reached at 252-635-5665 or nmayo@freedomenc.com.