By Leah Wilkinson
For those who’ve set foot on campus in the last 14 years, there’s a good chance they’ve encountered Darryl Woodson, the Office of Public Safety’s mid-watch sergeant.
But there’s another side to Woodson the Bellarmine community may not see as often: his art.
“You have to have an outlet,” Woodson said. “With these times here, with COVID-19 and these times we’re in now, the creative mind should be active.”
His artwork has been showcased in the United States, Australia and Guatemala, but members of the Bellarmine community may have seen it in the Creative Spirit Art Gallery outside the Campus Ministry Office in Centro.
Woodson is a self-taught commercial artist, illustrator and graphic designer. He is also a self-proclaimed, not-so-proud member of the “procrastinators cartel.”
THE EARLY YEARS
A Louisville native, Woodson said he began drawing in the late 1970s and early 1980s after becoming inspired by Parliament-Funkadelic record artist Pedro Bell, “Good Times” television show painter Ernie Barnes, underground cartoonist Vaughn Bodé and graffiti artist Futura 2000, to name a few.
“My parents used to listen to this funk group Parliament-Funkadelic, and I used to draw [Pedro Bell’s] album covers,” Woodson said. “And the funny thing is, I didn’t find out until I got older that this man, Pedro Bell and his crew, they would be on like acid drawing these, but those were the times, and it’s like, I never thought about that, and I was drawing these record covers as a kid.”
Woodson said he’s been drawing for as long as he can remember.
Woodson said he began to notice his need for artistry when he would look at the cover of his first record, Kurtis Blow’s eponymous debut album.
“I would just look at it,” Woodson said. “The first thing I noticed was his pendant’s crooked. The obsessive-compulsive in me is like, ‘This is crooked and there’s nothing you can do,’ but I would always look at that, and that was my intro.”
Woodson said another turning point occurred on Jan. 18, 1984, when PBS aired a documentary on New York graffiti called “Style Wars” that changed his perception of art.
“I’m like 13, and I’m sitting in my room one day and I’m just turning the channel and I run across PBS, and I see some kids that look like me, and they’re talking about drawing, and I’m like ‘What’s this?’” Woodson said. “I’m looking at this type of stuff and I’m intrigued. It’s got me locked in.”
Woodson said he often made his school desk into a makeshift canvas.
“You would know my desk because I would have my drawing on it, so people knew: that’s where Darryl sits.”
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN
Woodson said his vocational teacher in high school was trying to recruit some students to go visit the University of Columbus for a portfolio day.
“I grabbed a bunch of artwork and just put it together, but what I did was, I got this huge white poster board and stapled it on the sides,” Woodson said. “I didn’t have the confidence to even show anybody because I draw for me. It’s therapy.”
But people did end up seeing his art on the portfolio day. Woodson said David Miller from the Kansas City Art Institute recognized a basketball player Woodson drew.
“I wind up getting this call one day,” Woodson said. “They say, ‘We’re from the International Fine Arts College.’ I was like, ‘OK.’”
Woodson said he was not very excited about the phone call until he realized the school was in Miami. Then he received a scholarship and went to tour the school.
“I’ll never forget the day — we were standing on Biscayne Boulevard,” Woodson said. “I stood there and said, ‘Ayyo, Mom. Check this out here. If you’re looking for me, I’m gonna be right here.’ That [tour guide] looked at us and said, ‘Did he just say ‘ayyo’ to his mom?’”
Woodson graduated from the school — now Miami International University of Art and Design — in 1991.
“I used to carry a black and brown leather bottom Jansport backpack containing my art supply everywhere I went,” Woodson said, adding that it was the best backpack ever made.
He said he always had his head in two books, “Subway Art” and “Spraycan Art,” and that he never left the house without his Jumbo Pilot Markers.
He was in Miami when two hurricanes hit, as well as when sports became big in the city.
“I was there when the Miami Heat had been there for a year, I was there when the Florida Panthers came, the hockey team, and the Florida Marlins,” Woodson said. “I saw the whole city embrace a hockey team and a Major League Baseball team.”
Woodson said he used his art to promote clubs in college, advertising concerts and events via chalk drawings in front of the venues. He said he’s also been a contributing artist to several publications, including FreeGround and 4080, two underground art scene magazines.
“Art’s done a lot of things for me,” Woodson said.
MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES
He said at one point he was working on a project for a group. They said they couldn’t pay him, but asked, “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?”
Woodson said, “Aruba.”
Woodson said he later saw his name on a piece of paper. The person with whom Woodson was speaking asked if Aruba was still his dream destination and then handed him a plane ticket to Aruba, where he drew and snorkled for a week.
Woodson said another impactful moment for him occurred closer to home.
He said one day he was in downtown Louisville on Fourth Street right across from the Seelbach Hotel and saw Muhammad Ali sitting at a table signing autographs.
“I crossed the street,” Woodson said. “I didn’t even pay attention to the traffic, and I didn’t pay attention to the line I just went straight up to the table.”
Woodson recalled the conversation, which he said went like this:
“He said, ‘What’s your name?’
I said, ‘Darryl.’
He said, ‘I know you.’
[I’m like] ‘What?’”
“He had a book he was signing,” Woodson said. “He autographed the book and handed it to me.”
Woodson walked away and began to recount the situation. “Talking about how he knows me…”
“I open the book up and see he wrote ‘to Darryl,’ how I spell my name — oh, you couldn’t tell me nothing. I was like ‘The greatest of all time knows me?’”
It turns out Woodson’s family knew Ali’s family, so growing up Woodson said he always heard stories about Ali. He said although he doesn’t know if Ali knew who he was, it wasn’t the only Ali connection he’s had.
“My first Ali drawing was showcased in Sandrella’s Restaurant where I worked as a teenager,” Woodson said. “The first time I was in the 2016 Bellarmine magazine, a story was in the magazine regarding his death [and] the second time I was in the Bellarmine magazine, I was showcasing my Ali drawing and talking about my chance encounter with him.”
Woodson also said he worked the security detail when Ali’s twin daughters, Rasheda and Jamillah, came to Bellarmine.
“I could go on and on about my Ali connection,” Woodson said. “My next stop is to have work in the Ali Center.”
Woodson said he believes his Ali art will always receive the most praise.
BELLARMINE BOUND
Woodson said he planned to move to Brooklyn, New York, but ended up staying in Louisville to take care of his aunt and uncle. That’s when he heard about an opening for a corrections officer in Frankfort, Kentucky, where he worked 10 years before coming to Bellarmine.
In 2006, Woodson said a friend let him know Bellarmine’s Office of Public Safety was hiring.
And he’s made a name for himself on campus, too, working in the Office of Public Safety Tuesday through Saturday from 4 p.m. to midnight.
“He is a great guy,” said Debbie Fox, Bellarmine director of public safety. “Everybody asks where Darryl is.”
Fox said people have nothing but good things to say about Woodson.
“The complaints I get are few and far between, but especially with Darryl, because Darryl has that way of talking to people,” Fox said. “He just seems to be able to calm people down — it’s pretty cool.”
“For me, something kinda cool is that both of my parents worked at Bellarmine,” Fox said. “They both knew Darryl.”
Fox said her late mother was a “big Darryl fan.” She said Woodson would always bring her mother a newspaper and that her mother would always talk about how kind Woodson was.
“He is one of those guys who always just has the ability to take care of things and the ability to see if there was a student who needed something,” Fox said.
Fox said her mother would always ask where Darryl was, too.
“I’d say ‘Hey, Mom!’ and she’d go ‘Well hi, hon — have you seen Darryl?’ and I’m like ‘Mom, you haven’t seen me. What am I?’” Fox said.
Woodson said his first art conversation on campus was with ZHOY, a writer and former Bellarmine student from Lexington, Kentucky. Woodson said the two of them talked about graffiti among other things, and from that point forward, the Bellarmine community slowly discovered Woodson was an artist.
“And the rest is art history,” Woodson said.
TODAY
Woodson said he continues to draw regularly, mainly using Touch, Pentel and Copic markers. He said he has a large bin of markers and he has a Preston Art Center gift card he needs to use.
Much like his art, Woodson’s socks are detailed and vibrant.
He often wears his Green Lantern and Ren and Stimpy pairs, among others.
“I tell people my sock game is heavy,” he said.
And he talks to lots of people every day — about his socks, art and everything in between.
Senior Andrew O’Neill said he always notices how much interaction Woodson has on a daily basis.
“If you were a fly on his shoulder for a day he might say hi to upwards of 1,000 people — I wouldn’t even be surprised,” O’Neill said. “He just knows everybody and he makes an effort to do that, which I think is something I really appreciate about him.”
O’Neill said he believes Woodson’s presence is an integral part of the campus atmosphere.
“He really is one of those unique pieces of Bellarmine’s community,” O’Neill said. “[He] holds it together so well because he’s like a unifying force in that everyone knows him, and who he is, and at least something about him and has had a conversation with him.”
O’Neill said he recalls getting to know Woodson years ago and that he always remembers his welcoming personality.
“He’s a very personable guy and very genuine — what you see is what you get with him, and I think the thing that strikes me most about him is he’s like that with everybody,” O’Neill said.
Fox said she feels the same.
“He treats everybody the same,” Fox said. “It doesn’t really matter where you come from or what your story is — Darryl talks to you like you’re the same.”
O’Neill said he wasn’t aware of Woodson’s artistic talents prior to his display outside the Campus Ministry Office.
“I never knew he was artistically inclined in that way, but he really is, and he put a lot of effort into those,” O’Neill said. “My gosh, are they amazing and such admirable pieces.”
Woodson said he raises his three sons in Louisville and nurtures their artistic tendencies.
“The shortest time in your life is childhood, but as you grow through this thing called adulthood, whatever you’re into now, if you love it unconditionally, this is something you’ll always be doing,” Woodson said. “I can’t stop drawing. It’s all I’ve known.”