To read all the press about the international
success painter Dean Mitchell has gained from an early age, one would
think he never suffered through a starving artist period.
Born in 1957 and raised in Quincy, Fla., Mitchell found so much acceptance
and support of his work in his late teens that he was able to collect
enough in sales, competition prize money, scholarships and grants to attend
the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio. Upon graduation in 1980,
at the age of 23, he found work with a little greeting-card company called
Hallmark.
My mother was thrilled I had a real job, he says, because
she had warned him that a black man would never be able to make a living
selling pictures. In spite of her admonition, even once he reached Kansas
City, he kept signing up for and winning contests, one being the prestigious
T.H. Saunders exhibit in London where he was awarded Best of Show. Tensions
arose at work because of Mitchells acclaim, however, and he soon
found himself out of a job and living alone in a tiny apartment off Armour
Boulevard.
All I had was a box springs, a mattress, and my drawing table,
Mitchell says. The man who now owns a T-shirt that says, Real artists
dont starve, dedicated all his energy to not starving, and
found he was marketable enough to support himself without a day
job. Today, Mitchell has won over 400 awards, and his watercolors, oils
and acrylics sell for anywhere from $2,000 to $50,000. R. Crosby Kemper
Jr. is a particular fan and in ARTnews recommended Mitchells work
for collectors.
Highlights of Mitchells career include an invitation to the White
House Millennium party and his current collaboration with Maya Angelou
on a Limited Edition book of her poems and his original hand-pulled etchings.
Despite all his achievements, though, Mitchell doesnt equate feat
with finance. I always knew I would be successful, he says,
but I never thought I would make any money.
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