Monroe Dispatch - No Struggle, No Progress

Highlighting Young Blacks in North Louisiana and Their Commitment to Adding Value

Vitus Shell

Artist and Visionary

A visit to the art studio of Vitus Shell is like stepping into an unexpected adventure. His works can be seen eractically displayed with each work telling a story of a moment in time. Spend enough time and you are sure to hear Shell tell many intriguing stories of his life's experience that he so masterfully shares both orally and on canvas.

Vitus grew in several neighbhoods throughout south Monroe with a childhood filled with love for community and exploring his world. Some of his fondest memories from his childhood where from his childhood growing up in the projects on Berg Jones Lane. To most Berg Jones Lane was a dangerous mystery but to him it was a place of love and adventure.

"Everything people thought the Lane was, it wasn't." Vitus shared with a smile that would inform people that he knew secrets that he could share and secrets that he would keep sacredly to himself. In conversation, he orated many stories of how the projects were like a big family and how it was a common place to see the kids of the community all convening in one living room enjoying a meal from one of the grandmothers kitchen.

He even remembers a bike that was gifted to him after his original bike was burned in a house fire. His new bike was made from a lot of different miscellaneous parts and gifted to him by Mr. Glover, a man who was apart of the community. It wasn't brand new and shiny but was extremely special to him because as a kid he understood the sentiments of gifts that truly reflected someone's love.

As a kid he often doodled images that he saw around him as a means to make sense of the world but never took a formal art class until his Freshman year at Wossman High School. There his talent and attention of the arts was nurtured by his art teacher, Mr. Mead, who challenged him to draw people. They were a bit of an odd couple – he, a Black kid from the southside, and Mr. Mead, a White man who commuted into Monroe every day from a rural nearby town – but Mr. Mead's interest in helping Vitus informed him of opportunities and ways to cultivate his talents beyond the walls of the art room at Wossman High School. He initially thought he wanted to become a cartoonist and make comic books, but attending college opened his mind to a variety of pathways that art can provide. After high school Vitus ventured off to Memphis to attend the Memphis College of Arts in 1996.

In art school he met many crazy artists from all over and developed his talents studying everything from pottery to photography. He developed relationships with professional artists and educators including, a famous artist and Dean of his college connected him to a visiting artist, who really helped him cultivate his identity as a working artist, showing him many aspects of what helped an artist excel beyond creating works. He went on to attend Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, receiving his MFA in fine arts. He then moved back home. His homecoming has been a part of his education, helping him to grow and see the things around him that became a part of his art. He prides himself on creating art as a way to empower those around him. He especially enjoys facilitating community driven art projects like a moving Black Lives Matter art installation that can be seen throughout our area. When he is not found teaching at one the local universities he can be found traveling throughout the country participating in art shows. Monroe will remain his base, as he continues to ascend in the art world. He enjoys collaborating with the Black Creative Collective of north Louisiana, and has many aspirations of creating more creative projects to inspire the community.

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