Artist: Derrick Hickman
@derrickhickmanarts
Poem By: Barbara Fant
@bloombarbfant

This artwork is a collaboration between Derrick Hickman and Barbara Fant. 

Hickman knew he was going to be an artist since he was 5-years-old and graduated from CCAD. When approached by Easton to create a piece for the new district, Hickman was excited because he had been wanting to translate this series of paintings into larger formats, like a mural.
Fant was commissioned to create a poem about Crimson, a new Easton coffee shop opening in the district in the spring. Once Fant’s poem was complete, Hickman created a design that had the same rhythm, but also “a hurried, caffeinated feel.”  

“We tried to create a static meaning to memories that are at a constant state of evolving, considering how it suites us at the time,” said Hickman.  “That was what the work was about – this idea of self-created folklore. The obstruction and distortion of the line work and the color modulations are meant to get in the way, or obstruct the viewer from getting the whole message. They get bits and pieces of it, sort of like how when you tell someone a story and they walk away with their own ideas of it.”  

Hickman says it was a very fun and creative collaborative process. The color palette was based around the textures and materials of some of the communities that Crimson works with around the world, creating a global feel. “The combination of her words and my design all working together create a visual representation of what Crimson’s goal is – to support communities as well as a create a wonderful product.”

Tasting New Life
by Barbara Fant

stories of worlds
evolve from shared hands
purpose passes through palms
coffee beans spill through fingers,
our relationship to roots,
from farmers to futures,
freedom,
every purchase pours
resource into homes,
neighbors bend across
oceans, cultivating cultures,
communities
life, a song we fall into,
with every taste
new life bursts open
in your mouth