Richard Edson Sutton is a Charlotte-based artist and art educator whose painting and curatorial practice centers Black being, interior life, and social memory—attending to the conditions that shape how we are seen, remembered, and thrive. Working through a visual language that is both intimate and incisive, his work engages questions of identity and power. Drawing inspiration from African diasporic artists, the emotional intensity of the Baroque period, and the urban realism of the Ashcan School, Sutton tells stories rooted in lived experience and sustained by hope. His recent work explores identity and self-discovery, inviting reflection on both personal and collective narratives.