Darryl Montez Tucker

Artist Biography:

Darryl Montez Tucker Sr. was born August 30th, 1976, where he was raised in the West End of Louisville, Ky.   Darryl’s parents, Harry and Margaret Tucker, were hard workers from the West End of Louisville that taught him the value of money, respect, love, and God.  Darryl also has a brother that is 6 years older who installed the value of working hard to get what you want in life.  Darryl’s dad was an artist but never went public with his art.  Darryl would sit and watch him draw and try to do what he did at a very young age.

Darryl discovered in kindergarten that he had a talent for drawing.  Drawing and color choices seemed to come natural to him. He had fun copying cartoon figures and would sometimes trace the characters.  As Darryl advanced into grade school the drawings were getting even better.  Kids would ask him to draw different Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck.  Once Darryl got into Middle school the teachers would ask him to draw different things for the class or even for the yearbook.  Middle school is where Darryl made his first dollar drawing different characters for students.  Darryl’s parents also placed him in a after school art program that was in the basement of a church in West End Louisville. He was first introduced to paint there and how to use it correctly. At the time, painting didn’t seem to be Darryl’s strong suit, so he focused more on his drawings.

When it was time for High School, Darryl encountered many other artists that were very talented, so for the time being he wasn’t the featured artist anymore. Darryl became more active in other activities and not so much into art like he was earlier in life.  He joined the football and track teams and became very good in sports. He had an art class each year of High School but that was the extent of it. He would always get A’s in his Art classes and even some opportunities to enter his art pieces completed in high school in various art contests.  

After High School Darryl went on to play football and track at the University of Louisville and majored in Art.  College was a different level of art than Darryl had previously experienced.  Charcoal was introduced in the first year of college and this brought interest in art back for Darryl.  Learning how to shade and bring out the different ranges of darks and lights were very powerful.  Friends would see Darryl working on a homework assignment out in the Student Activity Center and would be astonished.  Friends and family wanted to purchase different charcoal portraits from him all throughout his college years. In college he met his future wife, Jennifer Adams that later would become Jennifer Tucker.  They were married in 2000 and had 4 kids throughout college.  Their oldest daughter Sydney was born in 2000, followed by a son Darryl Jr, in 2003, and twin daughter Danyelle and son Dominique born in 2004.   Darryl Jr, Danyelle, and Domonique all were diagnosed with Autism.

Not finishing college, Darryl needed to work more to help provide for his family.  After a few restaurant jobs, UPS, and Terminix, Darryl landed a solid job at Humana.  8 Years into his Humana employment, Darryl received a Well-Being role which allowed him to think of ways to use his talents to help the associates there.  

Darryl and his wife Jennifer attended a paint and sip class to see how they would like it.  Darryl rediscovered painting from his classes back at the church in middle school and through this paint and sip class and discovered how good he was at it. His painting came out really nice compared to others in the class and allowed him to see a lot of potential in what he could do with paint.  He felt he could instruct paint and sip classes of his own, so he tried a demo class with his wife and daughter. He discovered he could teach the vision to participants and the paintings came out as expected from an experienced paint instructor. Darryl put the painting his wife and daughter did on social media and that’s how Darryl’s business, “Painting with Tuck” took off.

A few years after getting his Well-Being position at Humana, Darryl introduced “Painting with Tuck” to Humana leadership and discussed with how painting can help associates mental and emotion well-being. He pushed for providing Art therapy to meet Humana’s Well-Being goals of more healthy associates.  He helps hundreds of associates every other month with his Art painting classes that are offered throughout the company.

In 2020 when Covid-19 shut down the world, Darryl stumbled on yet another form of creating art. While sitting in the house looking at social media, he noticed someone finger painting a lion and he was very curious on trying this technique. This became Darryl’s newfound passion!  Darryl would paint “Live” on social media in front people in parks, at events, or in his yard.  Darryl is very motivated by all the face-to-face interactions and social media comments he receives while he finger paints.

Darryl has been invited to multiple art festivals, shows, and exhibits. In 2022 the Governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear invited Darryl to display his work in the Kentucky State Capitol. This was a finger-painted piece representing the Kentucky Derby. Darryl considers this his most exciting exhibit to date. 

Artist Statement:

The type of art that moves me is powerful pieces that showcase lots of lights and darks.  I feel like any object placed in the right area giving off the right amount of contrast can become eye catching.  I love to pull out the strength and power within an object using different colors to capture the lights and darks.  I work with different mediums such as Pencil, Charcoal, Watercolor, Oil, and Acrylic paint.  I enjoy painting the traditional way with a brush, but my true passion is fingers on the canvas.  I flow so much freer by using my fingers as the brush and not being so constricted by trying to be precise with what I’m doing. 

Watch our live Artist-talk with Darryl Tucker during his exhibition’s opening reception.