A Conversation With Dudley Charles
by Marcia G. Yerman – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Dudley Charles
Most artists talk about their personal history with a definitive sense of knowing that they were destined to be an artist.
Not Dudley Charles.
A soft-spoken man with a melodic cadence to his voice, Charles shared with me his story of growing up in Plaisance, Guyana, and the path that placed him on the road to art.
Charles talked about his early years in elementary school, when he was about 10-years-old. He was not a top athlete and, despite his desire to play cricket with his peers, was not sought out to be on their teams. Charles had to fill his school time with another activity, and the only choice available was arts and crafts.
The class was comprised primarily of girls. He would look out the window at the boys chasing the ball and be filled with resentment. “I didn’t want to play with paints and do drawing,” Charles told me. “It was not a cool thing.”
Taking out his anger on the paper he was using for his projects, Charles described his behavior as being “like a disobedient kid.” Yet, the aggressive markings and interactions with his surface medium would find its way into his technique as an adult. [Read more]
