Chris Brown Opens Up About His Love for Art and Giving Back

After shying away from interviews, photo shoots, and features in 2012, Chris Brown with the guidance of his new manager, Bu Thiam, he has broken his silence. The "Don’t Judge Me" singer recently appeared in the MTV show ‘This is How I Made' and did a spread for Prestige Magazine.

Chris Brown shared with Prestige his positive side while posing in YSL, Roberto Cavalli, Tom Ford, and Armani.

If you follow him on instagram you may have seen he has a passion for painting but you may not have known of his long time involvement with various charities and his new foundation Symphonic Love. Check out excerpts of the interview below:

On His Other Passion
I’ve been painting secretly since I was a kid. A lot of people didn’t know that it was my hobby. I focused on doing the bad stuff at first with graffiti and vandalizing. But as you get older, you start studying art books and sketchbooks in the libraries. I started getting better, like maybe three or four years ago. I met Ron English and Kid Zoom [Ian Strange] and they were just teaching me different techniques for painting. So my art started growing and I started doing it on my own. I finally got people to recognize it and I did a couple of art galleries – one in LA and one in New York – and I sold four out of my seven paintings. You know, I’m new. But my feet are in the water and that’s all it takes. I don’t think I want to conquer painting. It’s just something I love to do.

On donating to St Jude's Children's Hospital
I’ve been involved with [those] since I was 15, 16. It’s not about recognition, because that’s not what satisfies me. The satisfaction is people that are getting helped or are benefiting from whatever I donate, whatever I contribute to their lives. I don’t like it to be publicized. If there are cameras around, it’s cool. But I do it from the heart. When I go on TV and do my videos, that’s the artist Chris Brown. But when I go and do [charity work] it’s just me – it’s just Christopher.

On Symphonic Love
Symphonic Love does programs in schools, like with my school back home. Musical programs and helping kids with disabilities. I do a lot of stuff with Best Buddies that coexists with that. The name comes from a tattoo that I’ve got [runs hand across his chest] – something that’s over my heart right now. So my heart is where it’s at. The tattoo “symphonic love” encompasses the positivity of what I’m trying to do – uplifting humanity.

As Reported on Necole Bitchie