Painter crafts ministry of positivity

PANAMA CITY — Race has been an issue Ricky Steele has been unable to avoid but something he has tried to overcome.

To this day, he believes some art shows will not accept his paintings — which have won more than 40 awards — because of the necessary bio that includes a picture showing he’s black.

This is old hat to the Panama City artist. He was the first black artist to work on Panama City Beach airbrushing T-shirts in the 1980s — and there were no bounds to the racial epithets hurled in his direction. He made sure to walk to his car in the company of another person.

--- VIDEO: STEELE TALKS ABOUT HIS CRAFT»»

No doubt Steele’s circumstances have improved since then.

“When the devil blocks me from one opportunity, God opens another door,” Steele said.

This type of positive thinking is the key to Steele’s success and his ability to break down barriers.

“I happen to be a guy who loves everybody,” Steele said. “I’m the same guy every day.”

Steele is driven by emotion — mostly positive emotion. His studio on Everitt Avenue is in the upstairs room, filled with natural light. On days like Monday, he likes to let the sunshine and gospel music wash over him before delivering strokes to the canvas. He started working on an abstract, taking one side of an empty, circular pallet to draw curved lines. He used a concrete-gray oil paint as the primary color, symbolizing his grief of his first cousin who had died in a car crash the previous weekend. The gray was book-ended by bright colors —  mustard yellow and salmon — symbolizing that he was coming out of that mood.

Steele is positive because he feels blessed to be able to make a living as an artist since 1981. It’s really the only thing he’s ever wanted to do; he was sketching, drawing and scribbling while his other brothers were playing on the basketball court. He said the greatest feeling is being able to sell a painting at its first showing. He’s seen other painters try to sell images of negative moments, like a lynching, and to him it shows more of the stones in their hearts than making a social statement.

Of his childhood, Steele said he was blessed to not know anything about racism. He started out in a Catholic school and he went with the attitude that he never met a stranger, gregariousness likely born from being the middle child of 14 brothers and sisters. It was only when he transferred to a public school that he found out some people did not like him because of his skin color.

Now, when one of Steele’s black friends talks about having a white buddy, Steele scoffs at the notion. He approaches skin color from the perspective of an artist and, thus, he’s never met a white person in his life.

“He’s more of a sienna mixed with titanium,” Steele said to his friend. “We’re all colored people.”

However, Steele has the blood of pioneers coursing through his veins. His father, Buck Steele, was one of the first black Panama City police officers. Buck Steele was the first black officer to arrest a white suspect, who was one of three youths assaulting an older white man. That was an unwritten barrier at the time — with cops relegated to their own neighborhoods.

Steele’s mother, Mary, was one of the first black restaurant owners in Panama City, operating Sweet Mary’s Restaurant and Lounge.

It’s no accident Steele is drawn to civil rights moments and leaders. In his house he has sketches of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. that are so lifelike it’s almost as if they’re looking at you from beyond the canvas. His painting of the Memphis, Tenn., sanitation workers boycott is impressionistic; the signs reading “I Am A Man” are clearly shown, but the faces of the men are obscured, although in full color it appears like worn newsprint. The “I Am a Man” painting hangs in Jesse Jackson’s office in Chicago.

--- VIDEO: STEELE TALKS ABOUT HIS CRAFT»»

“To me my work has been my ministry,” Steele said.

But his ministry refers to what he describes as his emotional paintings. One is “And Brothers,” showing one black boy and white boy holding hands. In the background are two older men, one black and one white, sitting on a porch. The inspiration for this painting is real life. Steele met these older friends and asked them about what it took to keep the friendship alive over the years.

“You have to go through things to grow,” they said.