Name: Willie Robert Middlebrook, Jr.
City of origin: I was born in Detroit, Mich, but I have lived in Southern California since I was three years old.
How did you find yourself in the arts? It’s all I know; Mother showed me how to draw when I was in first grade from that point on I was always the school artist, then when I was in high school my Father introduced me to Artists Wes Hall and John Outterbridge. I have been in the Arts all of my life.
Where do you draw your inspiration? I draw my inspiration from everything.
Describe yourself in 5 words: Motivated, dedicated, obsessed, obsessive and master.
What was the most memorable response to your work? My Father hanging up my early paintings in our house, and me crying, I was about 11 or 12 and he was using nails in all four corners and I felt he was destroying my work, twenty years later I would hang my 8 and 16 ft works up the same way.
When you aren’t creating works of art, what can you be found doing? Looking at or reading about works of art and the Artists that create them.
Who were some of your mentors? John Outterbridge, Cecil Fergerson, Wes Hall, Gary Winogrand, Roy DeCarava, my Father & Mother and all most everyone I run into.
What are you current/future projects? To create and then create some more!
