S A CHILD, Curtis Holder’s parents – who came over from the West Indies, post-Windrush – were of the belief that their three children should keep their heads down and get an education. His two brothers were academics whilst Curtis could draw but the concept of being an artist was meaningless to the family and certainly wasn’t seen as a means to make a living. Yet, the fathers of a couple of his close friends were professional artists and Curtis would shyly peer into their studios, fascinated, whenever he was over for a have a creative job, he decided he was going to be a graphic designer and did a transformative foundation course at Loughborough, followed by a degree at Kingston University, a less than satisfying experience. After dabbling in several jobs in the art and design world, he gave it all up to train as a primary school teacher, but he was always drawing, “for me,” he says.
