The prolific digital painter, and soon-to-be gallery owner, explains his approach to spotlighting icons through art. by Juma Sei [What follows is one of the many articles in the Mercury's Black Innovators Changemakers issue. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you're feeling generous and want to keep these types of articles coming, support us here.—eds.] Sometimes celebrating Black History Month feels fraught. It’s a blessing to carve out 28 days of remembrance in February, but why isn’t it 30 or 31? Why does March 1 feel like a return to business as usual? Why–for most–isn’t celebrating Black history more usual? These are the questions that underpin More Than February (MTF), an emerging art gallery near the heart of Old Town/Chinatown. Ronin Roc is the gallery’s chief curator. He’s also an artist whose experience navigating Portland’s creative landscape has made accessibility a primary mission. Ronin is most widely known for his vibrant digital portraits, featuring a host of Black icons with global, national, and local significance. Much like the MTF brick and mortar itself, his charge is to create a sustained, shared platform to elevate Black creativity in full dimension. At present, these portraits adorn the walls of MTF in Old Town. They’re a fitting background to imagine what the space will become. MERCURY: What was the initial idea behind More Than February? RONIN ROC: I had the idea while watching Black Panther with my son. I drew Chadwick Boseman while watching, and people were excited by the piece. So, I challenged myself to draw a different Black figure every day in February. I also saw an episode of Black-ish and heard this line: “We’re more than just February.” It stuck with me. Even if I drew a new figure every day of the year, I’m not gonna get even close to all of our civil rights leaders, let alone the other influential Black people. It’s really hard to choose who I do next. How do you choose? Usually I get inspired by something. Now, I do take commissions and stuff–like the one of Nina Simone. I got commissioned by, actually–not Black people. Nina Simoneronin roc Does that happen often? Yeah, it’s surprising how many people from other nationalities are into my art. There’s way less people who own one piece of my art, rather than multiple pieces. And I didn’t realize how well it all looks together. Each one, by the time I get done with it, I’m like, “This is the best piece I’ve ever done.” What's your favorite right now?  I'm doing all of the Wu-Tang Clan. So far, I have RZA, ODB, and I just finished Method Man. I stayed up until six in the morning trying to finish Method Man, and then I cracked my screen.  Do you use your computer? iPad? I have Photoshop open on my computer and draw with my iPad. I like the physical labor of painting on the screen. The shortest amount of time any piece has taken me—wow, recently with ODB—was six hours. Usually it takes me a minimum of eight hours. The longest was 30 hours. Who was that? Kobe Bryant. The Cowboys—Bill Pickett and Bass Reeves—took an insanely long time too; my reference was this destroyed black and white photo.  How do you learn about the people in your portraits? While making the piece, I’ll watch or listen to any media that correspond to the person. I learned a lot from doing Angela Davis. I knew who she was, but I didn’t truly know her story. I knew “Power to the People,” but I didn’t know what it really meant. What does it mean to you? That the system puts us against each other, when the enemy is something much larger than us. Like, white people who are poor and disenfranchised are being taught that all their plights in life are due to Black people. But if we work together, these multi-millionaires can’t use us to fight each other. Paul KnaulsRonin roc I see a portrait of Mr. Paul Knauls, a local hero. How did you decide on him? There are so many local civil rights leaders in Portland, but I couldn’t name 10 of them. Not only that, my kids can tell you parts of the “I Have a Dream” speech and the history of Malcolm X, but they can’t tell who stopped segregation in our own city. They can’t tell you that the original home for the Black community in Portland was Chinatown. It made me want to paint the influential Black people of our community. Also, our new guard. Like Ian Williams who owns Deadstock Coffee. He’s been a very supportive friend; between the art, the morning show, and other things. Morning show? We did a morning show called “Your Morning Drip” and it was the hugest labor of love in my life. But Ian and I were like, “We’re going through this Black renaissance in Portland, and we have very few outlets that are sharing our point of view.” I guess that wraps into Mr. Knauls perfectly. I used to go to Geneva’s as a kid–I got my prom haircut there. I learned so much when making his portrait. He helped fundraise for the Martin Luther King Jr. statue in front of the Oregon Convention Center. He also helped fundraise for the military housing we have in the city. I knew he owned the Cotton Club, but didn’t know that it was a home base for all these different genres of music. Eventually, I want to make a coloring book to educate kids about our local heroes. Are you familiar with the Hometown Heroes series? In 1993, a local teacher–Lolita Darby–had her elementary school students create a similar series of community profiles.  I’m working with Stephen Green on something like that now, and it’s so important. Like the history of Beatrice Morrow Canady’s house—the fact that we have to fight to recognize our own history. These stories should be more easily accessible for our children.   You said that Portland is in a Black renaissance. Say more. I think it is. Even with us opening this art gallery. We can house Black joy, we can show Black art, we can nurture new Black creators. I don’t want to be a gatekeeper, so one of the walls is dedicated to first-time Black artists. It excites me that more spaces are concretizing Black culture in Portland’s built environment. And it’s more than just us. Cyrus and Wale are making their own Black gallery down the street. Just up the block, there’s The BLACK Gallery from Don’t Shoot PDX. I want all Black people to win. Who has inspired you over the years? The greatest teacher that I’ve had is adversity. Like the people who have stood in the way of this gallery–this is our third evolution. We’ve been promised gallery space before, then gotten it taken away and given to a white group–told that they know more about art and culture. There’s a certain type of Black person that Portland is good with. I don’t have a Nike badge. I don’t work at Wieden + Kennedy. I don’t have a day job at Intel. I’ve done art my entire life. That’s not to speak bad about any of those people–again, I want all Black people to win–but when you’re not the cool kid in the city, you doing something dope doesn’t matter as much as someone else trying to create it. There’s a lot of imposter syndrome that comes into being an artist. But I do have people who push me–like my mother, my children’s mother. My biggest inspiration of all is my son. Without him, the series would have never started. Other inspiring co-conspirators are Donovan Scribes and Mac Smiff. They were utterly supportive through the protests. We didn’t always have to agree on things, but we always had space to listen. Who got you into art? When I was a kid, my big cousin Hassan was drawing and was way better than I was. I wanted to be just like him. Since then, I’ve always drawn and done pictures. I also had an amazing art teacher in college–Dave Anderson. He taught me so much about style. Being technically great at art is fine, but the most important thing in art is your style. How did you develop yours? The reason why I do digital art and not physical painting–even though I’m classically trained as a painter–is that I would have to make unaffordable art. But the way I do my work now, there’s no original. I appreciate how core accessibility is to your philosophy. Especially if we think about your most sold piece, Angela Davis. That’s one of the most sold. Two of the most sold pieces are in front of you [in the gallery] right now. I’d love to hear your guesses. Malcolm X and Tupac? Nah. Damn. Nipsey Hussle and Sade? Yeah, Damian Lillard is also up there. I did that after he left Portland. It was my effort at some good juju to make him come back. And it worked! I made an eight-foot print of him, and there’s one hanging up in the Moda Center. I like to say that I willed Dame back to the city. Damian Lillardronin roc It must be meaningful to have your work visible to so many. Are there any other series you want to explore next? There’s a few that we have coming out. I just did Jackie Robinson. But doing the Portland civil rights leaders is something that I really want to do. I’m also working on Richard Pryor. I want to do a whole series of Black comedians, because they’re our modern-day storytellers. Dave Chappelle talked about that: there are these Black storytellers in African culture and every time one of them died, it was like burning down a library. Another one that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time–aside from Ali–is a series solely featuring Black women and mothers. There’s a lot of amazing civil rights leaders who were mothers, not only to our culture, but in general. I look forward to that work. What’s up next for the gallery? We’re gonna have our grand opening in February. It’s so funny how everything comes back to February. More Than February (322 NW 6th) is set for its grand opening on February 13 from 6 pm to 9 pm. Visit morethanfebruary.net and @morethanfebruary on Instagram to learn more. ...read more read less