For Brandon artist Bryant Martinez, painting is a passion.
Yet, it's not his only passion. He's married, has two kids, teaches special education at Tampa Bay Tech, cares deeply for Tampa's fledgling Renaissance Center For the Arts. Plus, he gives often to the Child Abuse Council.
Over happy hour meals and cigars at the Latin Cafe, we talked about his passions, his expressionistic oil paintings and his love of teaching.
Pull up a chair and join us.
ERNEST: Tell me about your arts roots.
BRYANT: I've been painting for about 20 years and I've been doing art shows for 10.
So you've been painting since you were 11?
I started out drawing and painting was the next step, really. I use the colors in the paintings as emotional expressions. Green is considered growth, potential. Red is passion. Blue is water and memories. I try to put a lot of symbolism in the paintings. I like to make a story out of the paintings, historical images. The one painting on my business card is an ideal memory image of my grandfather telling stories of Havana. I try to catch what maybe you can't catch in words.
What medium do you use?
Oils on canvas. I've been doing a lot of murals lately. At my last art show, I got labeled a Cuban-American expressionistic artist, which is good. I don't want to be labeled abstract.
What does that mean?
Abstract becomes abstract (laughs). Marc Chagall was expressionistic. I respect his art work a lot.
Do you have to paint?
I do. It's a passion. I've done the interior designer stuff and that was okay, but it's more of a personal extension of myself, of listening to people and just watching what they do.
Take me back to your childhood.
Around high school time I probably got more serious. I was able to explore more with the paintings and then I went into the Navy. When I went into the service, I couldn't really paint much. Right after I got out of the service, my first art show was with the library system.
After the service, you enrolled at UT. Did you take art classes there?
No (laughs). They can't teach me my passion. I took one class in high school, and my teacher told me I wasn't that good, and that kind of stuck in my head. I won't drop his name, but one day I'll get a chance to bump into him and say, Look at this now.
How did you learn?
I used the library. That's how the library kind of nested with me. I would go over there and check out tons of books on the arts.
What's the next step?
To just continue growing with the artwork and make those contacts with good people, people who have the same desire to give back to the community. I can express myself better in those groups.
What are you trying to accomplish as a teacher?
With special ed, I want to teach more tangible kinds of teaching instead of just book work. I like the academics, I think that's really important, but I think the students want a sense of purpose. One of my students, I helped him get a job at Publix. He was bragging to the other students and I heard him telling the other kids, I'm going to save up money and get a bicycle. I started thinking about it and I called the sheriff's department and said, I'm going to be real greedy and ask for seven bicycles. Ann Gardella, the evidence room manager, said, No, you can't get seven, come get 100.
Why teach special education instead of art?
The special ed population is important to me. I like those students. I think we need to help them get exposed. My wife Debbi is a special ed teacher, too. In fact, that's how we met. We were both teaching special ed at Robinson High School.
But that takes a lot of dedication, right? It's challenging.
You really do fall in love with them. Ideally, the perfect student has a support network, is capable to self learn, and gets into college. At Tampa Bay Tech, we can expose the special education students to different shops and trades. If I can teach them language arts and they're capable of getting along in society, lo and behold that kid can become a mechanic, a welder, construction, culinary arts, health magnate. We have a chance to see some of these kids really succeed. I've seen a quote that's great: Every student is gifted, some just take a little time to show that gift.
So are there other artists out in Brandon?
Yeah, I get a chance to meet some of them here and there. I think artists appreciate each other, but there's still competition deep down.
What needs to happen in Brandon to promote the arts?
I went to check out the Brandon League of Fine Arts and I think they've got a good base. It's good for networking, it's good for support, but it just fascinates me that so many times we go out of the city to get these so-called experts on arts or artists when a lot of that is here. What would make Brandon better? Maybe it needs to be incorporated. Maybe it needs to become a city so people would have more of a sense of pride for Brandon. They're really is a lot out here. We have affluent crowds out here that would appreciate the arts, educated crowds, professionals.
DESSERT: A postscript from Ernest
In the last year, Bryant, 31, has had shows at John Germany Library in downtown Tampa, TECO Plaza in downtown and at Avant Garde, the Tampa Museum of Arts program for aspiring artists. Some of his works have sold for up to $4,000, and he's also done portraits including former mayoral candidate Frank Sanchez and his mother Delia. Bryant said he would like to move into kinetic sculpting, but probably not until his kids get a little older. His daughter, Emaly, is 8-months-old and his son, Eli, is 31/2. Since he first connected with Gardella at the sheriff's office, he has given more than 400 bikes to students at the Mendez Center and Tampa Bay Tech. The Tech kids have taken the broken bikes and modified them into all kinds of hyped-up cycles.
- Ernest Hooper also writes a column for the Tampa & State section of the St. Petersburg Times. Lunch With Ernest is edited for brevity and clarity. To suggest lunch partners, call Ernest at 226-3406 or e-mail hooper@sptimes.com
