William Kitt grew up just a few blocks from the George Bruce Library, and many of the pieces in this showcase are set here in Harlem. Kitt is a self-taught artist who first began painting in 2003. He learned to draw using dancers from the Broadway show Chicago as his models. On Saturdays and Sundays, he traveled downtown and they posed for photographs he would take back to his studio to work from. Kitt says that the inspiration for his work comes from moving around the city and meeting new people and that his art provides him direction in life, with each piece motivating him to study harder.
The eighteen pieces in this showcase were created between 2008 and 2019 and are all works in pastel, which Kitt prefers for its delicacy and the special demand required to blend the colors. Taken as a whole, he sees this showcase as an opportunity to reflect on all he has taught himself over the past two decades and to step out into the world and share his art – something he believes God chose him to do.
Artist Bio:
I am a Harlem renaissance man who was born and bred in Harlem. I wandered for fifty years in the desert of life, living homeless for thirty-four years, until I was awakened out of a dream by an angel that patiently explained to me what I was put on this earth to do from God’s point of view. The only thing that has been in my mind and heart for the last 20 years is that I was born to be an artist.
The angel said that all I had to do was believe. That night in December 2003 I gave my life over to God and in return, God has guided my spirit throughout the years as a self-taught artist with inspiration and the hope of becoming one of the greatest artists of the 21st century.
Commitment to God and to yourself is the first step of any dream. If you believe in yourself and you work hard there is nothing in this world that you can’t achieve.
Jesus is Lord.
-William Kitt