Ricky Calloway

Ricky N. Calloway was born in Lafayette, Alabama to Mr. Edward Lewis and Mrs. Willie Mae Calloway on March 2, 1960. Both parents are deceased. After receiving many art awards in high school, Ricky was encouraged by his mother and art teacher to pursue a career in art. After graduating from high school in 1978, he enrolled into the art program at Alabama State University (ASU) in Montgomery, Alabama. After graduating from ASU in 1984 with a B.A. degree in graphic design, Ricky worked approximately three years as a graphic designer and printmaker with several sign and t-shirt companies in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1986, he was accepted into the Master of Fine Arts program at Florida State University (FSU) where he concentrated in the areas of drawing and painting. Because of his skills and academic achievements, two University Fellowships and out of state tuition waivers were awarded to him while attending FSU.

After graduating from FSU, Ricky moved to Hyattsville, Maryland where he went back to working as a graphic designer and printmaker for several t-shirt companies and rented an art studio space with Artists Salon to pursue a fine art career in the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C. Due to his passion for his first love, fine art, Ricky took a leap of faith and quit his last job as a graphic designer with Jewels and Company to pursue a career in fine art and teaching. While exhibiting and selling artwork on the east coast of the United States, he worked as an art instructor at Filmore Arts Center and Tomorrows World Art Center in Washington D. C. from 1992 until 1994. Between the years of 1994 through 1998, he was employed as an Assistant Professor of Art at Grambling State University. Since the fall semester of 1998, Ricky has been employed by Fort Valley State University where he has risen to the rank of full Professor of Art. He continues to participate in exhibitions regionally, nationally and internationally. Several of these exhibitions are Emami Art, Kolkata Centre for Creativity, Negritude Exhibition of African American Art, 777 Anandapur, E.M. Bypass, Kolkata 700107, W. B. in India of 2021; and Harmony Gallery, US Consulate, and Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Cultures, We Stand Together, US Embassy, Shanghai, China in 2023. Regionally, Ricky won two first place and one honorable mention at the Winter Arts Festival sponsored by the Middle Georgia Art Association in Macon, Georgia. Nationally, he won an honorable mention at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, 19^th Annual African American Art Exhibition in Louisville, KY in 2013; Black Heritage through Visual Rhythms, Won Best in Show Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio in 2018; and Art of Soul, Received Two Honorable Mentions at the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio in 2019. Ricky serves as the Vice President of the Public Relations for the National Alliance of Artists from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Mrs. Lucile Calloway was my grandmother and a hard worker during her lifetime. I used to love traveling to the countryside to spend time with her. I remember the days of helping grandmother till the soil in her garden where she grew all sorts of vegetables. Once she reaped the benefits of her garden, she would preserve her vegetables by storing them in mason jaws. My grandmother was an artisan. I remember as a child how she made quilts by hanging a rectangular structured frame above the bed and stitched various decorative patches of cloths together to create balanced design patterns. She would make apparel by using a self-propel sowing machine. Her creative gift of artisanship was passed on to me and my sister, Mrs. Sharon Parker. My sister followed her footsteps as a seamstress who used to have a business in making special custom-made curtains for her clients. I pursued a career as a professional artist and educator. Therefore, in memory of my grandmother, this painting was created to pay homage to her and our artistic ancestors throughout antiquity, which goes all the way back to the continent that African Americans were forcefully taken from, Africa.

Georgia

United States