We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Derrick White a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Derrick, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks, and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?
My mom. Let me explain with a story.
An Alaskan Malamute is a large breed of dog for hauling – like an Alaskan sled dog. As a romantic, my dad involved himself in many unique ventures. While owning a gas station along historic Route 66 in the early 1970s located in Shamrock, Texas, a van of traveling hippies stopped. They were unable to pay for their gas, so my dad bartered a deal to trade a tank of gas for them leaving an enormous Malamute dog as collateral. Dad bringing stray or wounded animals home was common, but my mother was forced to deal with this large and unruly canine wreaking havoc upon her home. Weeks later, after the people reached their destination, they wired Dad the money for the gas and Mom was asked to please drive the dog to the Amarillo airport. This was also common, Dad gets into a messy, complicated situation, and Mom bails him out. She said the road trip was awful, traveling ninety miles with a hairy beast in her car to get him onto an airplane and send him home. Mom jokingly said when she arrived in the afterlife, she wanted to thank God for the blessings in her life but would be curious to know which specific blessings were in return for the Malamute – the feeding, cleaning, and the horrific road trip with a gigantic car roaming monster. She wondered why she was subjected to such a ridiculous life event. She hoped the good Lord would point to something specific in her worldly existence and say, “This is for the Malamute!”
My mom affectionately, diligently, and patiently raised four boys. She was the indisputable keystone of our family. She was generous with her praise and proudly kept all my press clippings and art show announcements. I’m trying to match a remarkably high model for living life tolerantly with intensity, strength, appreciation, and perseverance. My mother passed away after suffering through years of Alzheimer’s disease in 2015 and I’m sure she got all her earthly questions answered but for myself, I like to believe everything I get ‘right’, devotion to my wife, volunteering to help others, raising and loving our kids, when I remember to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, artistic tenacity, my generosity, and a devotion to teaching is in some way a dedication to my mom, an indebtedness specifically for the Malamute and for so much more. Every student who just happens to be inspired by something learned or understood in my art class or any viewer gleaning insight about oneself from one of my paintings gets traced directly back to my mom in a hot car with an annoying dog.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am constantly working on my art and taking ideas and inspirations from my daily life and the lives and world around me. I want my work to be engaging and fun but to also reveal its sincerity through the form. The biggest lesson I have learned in my art career is perseverance. One must appreciate the good things and opportunities when they arrive but also endure and commit to one’s artistic pursuits even when things don’t seem to be falling into place. I have exhibited my work in hundreds of exhibitions and been honored with several Best in Show awards. I want to actively engage viewers with the composition of my paintings and have them develop their interpretations but also sense a connection to me and my processes. I work and re-work paintings and address difficulties, comedies, and anxieties of life. I hope people feel these connections and know they are not alone.
One of my paintings is included in an exhibition at the Longview Museum of Fine Arts titled Cultural Connect – Made in America: Celebrating American artists from the 20th and 21st centuries, using works from LMFA’s diverse permanent collection on view in the main gallery through December 24, 2024.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Authentic creativity, appreciation, and perseverance. I have the good fortune of working with students and encouraging them to become their true selves and embrace the joy and satisfaction, with all its pitfalls, of pursuing art. At Tyler Junior College when a student gets inspired to change their major to art, an expression we have is “Derrick White Ruined My Life.” This is about an exhibition of my paintings where I discussed being an artist has not ruined my life but saved it and given me the best, creatively healthy, life I can imagine. As an art professor, I try to teach two skills – appreciation and perseverance. Everything in your life that is good (art, health, friends, family, etc.) will not last. Value what you have while you have it. Furthermore, the tribulations we all experience in life (illness, heartaches, layoffs, etc.) will not last. Persist and don’t ever give up. You need to keep chugging along, working towards your goals, and living each of your days to the best of your ability using that wonderful human stubbornness of perseverance.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
by David Bayles and Ted Orland is a great and inspirational book. It addresses almost every excuse one could imagine for not making art or quitting and offers solutions.
I am currently reading The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Ruben and I am loving and gaining inspiration from every page.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.canvashead.net
- Instagram: @canvashead
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DerrickWhiteRuinedMyLife/
Image Credits
Personal photo by Santiago Nunez.
