Most people tend to envision their early sixties as a time to retire and wind down — a period for rest and relaxation, rather than any jarring life changes. 65-year-old Brenda Singletary, however, is not like most people. Since turning 60 years old, the artist has made a cross-country move from the Atlanta area to rural Michigan, gotten married and opened her own art studio, where she taught free art classes to fellow seniors in fall 2019.

“It’s a path less traveled — it just is,” Singletary said. “No guts, no glory. You have to figure out what it is that you want and go for it — and sometimes you’ll fall flat on your face, but if you try often enough, you’re gonna win a few of them.”

Singletary has been venturing the path less traveled since becoming interested in art during her grade school years, which she spent growing up on Detroit’s East Side.

“My father, on Sunday mornings, before we went to Sunday school, he would pull out the Sunday paper — that’s when they had the ‘funnies,’ they called them, y’know, the comics — and he would imitate certain characters ... and he would sit at the table and just draw them,” Singletary said. “I would imitate him, and I realized that I could do it better than my three sisters could do it.”

Seeing this talent, Singletary’s grade school art teacher put her in a special, weekly afternoon art program, which further cultivated her passion for the craft.

“That’s the first time I realized I did something really well,” Singletary said. “It gave me a little confidence.”

In high school, Singletary went on to win a competition at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

“Everybody thought it was such a big deal,” Singletary said, laughing. “And I said, ‘Well, wow, maybe I should investigate this art thing when I go to college.’”

At the age of 19, Singletary did just that, moving to Atlanta to attend Morris Brown College, where she went on to attain a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education.

“I just fell in love with Atlanta,” Singletary said. “I’d come home [to Detroit] for the summer to work, but I’d go back, and one summer I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to come back to Detroit — so I started looking for a job.”

Singletary found employment at a television station, and spent several years in the production business. However, she gradually discovered that this was not the career path for her.

“I liked working behind the scenes, but every job I got pretty much required that I do things in front of the camera, and I didn’t enjoy it at all,” Singletary said. “So I decided to take a chance again, and just quit and try art.”

Singletary has since made her career out of being what she calls an “interdisciplinary” artist, using different materials and working with different processes to explore different modes of self-expression.

“I’m able to truly express myself — to put on canvas or papers, or whatever medium I'm working with ... my feelings, my ideas ... — just, a wonderful voice that I can share with the world,” Singletary said.

Suzanne Schreiber, who coordinates the INAI Gallery as a ministry of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, said that Singletary “has a wonderful style in her art.”

“I think she has a good sense of color and texture,” Schreiber added. “I guess the textures in her work were just really kind of interesting.”

According to The HistoryMakers, a nonprofit educational institution that prides itself as “the single largest collection of African American first-person video oral history testimony in the world,” Singletary’s artwork has been collected by former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, Atlanta Braves senior vice president Hank Aaron, bestselling author Terry McMillan, former Attorney General of Georgia Thurbert Baker, and Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman.

Despite the popularity of her work, Singletary emphasized that she identifies herself as a “community service artist.” She spoke far more proudly of the “art burnings” she held in the ‘90s, for which she would invite people to come “save” some of her spare works for themselves by bidding on them before she destroyed them. Singletary would then set aside a chunk of the proceeds for nonprofits.

“Just about every nonprofit in the city of Atlanta, we did an art burning over a five-year period,” Singletary said. “And so, I started going out to California and doing them out there. Oh, boy, it was unreal there… I didn’t frame the pieces of artwork — we sold everything unframed. I’d go with about 50-70 pieces and come back with an empty portfolio… go back home, just to create more artwork, and then go back out there a month later, just to sell it. It was amazing. It really was.”

Singletary spent 40 years based in Atlanta. However, when her father fell ill a few years ago, she moved back to Detroit to support him. Once there, she reconnected with a former classmate, Town Money Saver publisher Mike Johnson.

“He took me to my first dance in the sixth grade, but I had forgotten about him in that way,” Singletary said. “And he contacted me through Facebook... and he started coming over… and I couldn’t get rid of him. And that was a long drive from Adrian to Detroit, so I felt sorry for him and married him.”

After marrying in 2017, the pair settled down together in Adrian, Michigan, where Singletary set up her own art studio, The Art Factory, at 209 N. Main St. in September 2019.

Shortly after opening The Art Factory, Singletary — who had realized that Adrian had a stark lack of programs available for people her age — decided to use its back room to host art classes for seniors. Due to the fact that many seniors live on fixed incomes, Singletary made the fall 2019 classes free, allowing older adults from all backgrounds to experiment with drawing and various forms of painting, including pastel and watercolor.

“We [as a class] try to inspire them, and just... make them aware of the art that’s all around them by just doing the simple things that they can adapt and take home — put on the wall — and just be proud to say they’ve done this themselves,” Singletary said.

Sharon Fry, 76, is one of Singletary's success stories. According to Fry, the classes have “enriched and broadened” her life — and Singletary’s unique personality was key to her enjoyment of the experience.

“She just sounded so bright and cheery and inspiring on the phone when I talked to her ... I found out that she was every bit as bright and cheery and inspiring as she sounded on the phone when I went to the first class,” Fry said of Singletary. “You know, everybody's busy, and everybody's stressed ... but ... even when she's stressed about something, she's so encouraging.”

According to Singletary, her encouragement is sincere. Even now, at 65, she takes the path of the community service artist so that she can make art accessible to those who want to access it.

“I remember as a child, I used to go to the Detroit Institute of Arts, and we’d see the paintings — you know, especially being a Black kid, we didn’t see paintings like that at our house,” Singletary said. “I just felt that it was always on a pedestal away from me — something that we couldn’t afford to really even enjoy. And I didn’t want other people to feel the way that I did — that it is not accessible, that it is for people of wealth and privilege. … So I just always felt strongly for the arts — and it’s not just visual arts, but also music, and dancing… all kinds of culture… it should be accessible to all of us.”