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OCTOBER | PAGE 59 | 2015 personal to me." Brown's dozens of multi-ethnic artworks range from traditional African artifacts to works by notable contemporary artists in Korea, China and Germany, along with a growing contingency of contemporary masters from Latin America. He also owns a painting by blue-chip British artist Damien Hirst, and works by Texas heavyweights Joseph Havel, Joe Mancuso and James Surls. B rown grew up in Jefferson, a northeast Texas town resplendent with antebellum architecture and bayous dense with moss and cypress. It had an effect on him. "I loved to wander the woods," he says. "But my father had the green thumb, and my love of flowers came from him. I'd dig in the dirt around his vegetable and flower gardens, and the joke was, somebody would ask, 'Where's David?' And they'd say, 'Oh, he's out rearranging the backyard again.'" He was also fascinated by architecture and abstract art. "At 8, I was drawn to Jackson Pollack and Louise Nevelson. Abstract art just talked to me," he says. "I was always trying to replicate those artists' works in particular." Brown went on to earn a degree in architecture from Texas Tech, landing in Houston and working for an architectural firm designing high-rises. "After five years, there was nothing to satisfy the creative urge in me," he says, so he quit and bought a store in Houston called the Ivory Hunter, which sold tropical plants and reproduction African artifacts. Over the years, it evolved into his highly touted flower-design business. "I never trained under anyone, I had to invent a lot of the rules," Brown says. "I looked at what others were doing in Europe and across the country." Likewise, he navigates the often cutthroat world of art collecting by his wits, befriending gallerists and artists along the way. "When you're spending significant amounts of money, the art world can be like a used car dealership," he says. "I have become such good friends with gallery owners in Houston. I trust these people. I try and get to know the artists, and I have good relationships with most of them. If something interests me, I'll go home and research the heck out of it," he says. Brown buys only what he loves and hangs onto everything. "If someone tries to sell me something as an investment, that's the end of it," he says. Except for a handful of more vibrant works, Brown's art collection is as understated as his interiors, which are cocooned in tones of rich chocolate and tan. Home is the elegant antithesis of the color-drenched atelier where he spends his days. "I don't live at home like you might think a florist would," he says. "I work Clockwise from top: Joseph Havel's large Shiva sculpture, 1989. Over fireplace, Luis Tomasello's 2008 wall sculpture. Pair of leather MR chairs by Mies van der Rohe for Knoll International, purchased in 1974. Vintage Poltrona Frau John-John sofa. Vintage 1976 reproduction African statue from Brown's former Ivory Hunter store. Folk art vase made of shards of glass, circa 1980, from Area. Mirror-polished steel coffee table from Internum. Flower vase by London artist Michael Ruh. Gabriel de la Mora's AGC II, 2008, made of human hair on paper. Black-and-white photos by Japanese-American artist Hiroshi Watanabe. Adela Andea's White Diamond light sculpture, 2011, through Anya Tish Gallery. Vernon Fisher's depiction of an African sunset with parched desert includes freeze-dried flies with thin bronze legs, which the owner of the artwork can place at will. Santiago Cucullu's Stacked Tables with One Extra Leg, 2001, through Barbara Davis Gallery. German light fixture is filled with lard that creates a glow when heated. Antique Italian console with burl-wood inlay.