Rodney D. Butler is a native Houstonian. While attending James Madison High School he excelled at art, wood shop and drafting. After graduating from high school, he went on to Tuskegee University, where he received a Bachelor of Architecture degree. While working for a local architecture firm after graduation, he realized the industry was headed in a 3D direction, so he decided to pursue an Associate degree in Computer Animation at the Art Institute of Houston. While at the Art Institute, Rodney realized that he was an artist at heart, which came to no surprise to those who watched him growing up. Even as a child he was always drawing and building things.
A few years after graduating from the Art Institute, Rodney decided to take a welding class at Leisure Learning. There they taught him the basic techniques of Arc welding, Mig welding and Brazing. Taking these classes reignited the artist in him. He started collecting equipment and scrap metal and created a style of art he calls “Green Metal Art”. This style is where he takes scrap metal and various other equipment parts that are unusable, or by normal standards considered junk, and recycle them into art.
A few years after the creation of “Green Metal Art”, Rodney attended a couple of painting with a twist classes. He realized he liked painting with acrylics. Whether its traditional brushes of Air Brushing he could put on canvas, paper, wood, etc., his experiences lived, skills learned from architecture school, and art school.
Rodney’s work has been featured in various festivals, galleries and museums such as First Saturday Art Festival, Houston Fine Art Festival, The Bayou City Art Festival, Houston Museum of African American Culture Bert Long Jr. Gallery, The Kemp Center for the Arts – Wichita Falls TX, JoMar Visions, Texas Southern University Museum, The Black Cowboy Museum, Buffalo Soldier National Museum, Harambee Art Gallery, 45 & Art, Gallery Baroness, Adam and Madam’s Gallery Bistro Shop, Aurora Studios and Gallery, Hardy & Nance Studios, DuVin Pintor Art Gallery, Le Chateau, BR Vino, Insomnia Gallery, 310 Gallery, Rockstar Gallery, 9th Street Studios – Wichita Falls TX, San Antonio Art League & Museum Art Machine Gallery, Lawndale Art and Performance Center Breckenridge Fine Arts Center National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center – Wilberforce OH, Leon County Art Trail-Jewett TX
and countless underground art shows.
Rodney D. Butler 