Darrell Brothers was an Alabama native. He began his art career drawing from the model but also worked in a more abstract style. He studied art at the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and Indiana University in Bloomington. In 1959, he began teaching art in the Cincinnati public schools and at Northern Kentucky University. In 1966, he became an art professor at Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, and worked there until his death.