Because of my upbringing, for a very long time I thought you had to stick to just one thing. That was something I was told from a very young age and it had to be something that made money and art wasn't it. I tried to work at something that interested me, I would dive into it and learn everything I could about it. Then I would get bored, look for something else and move on. I started to question who I was and what I was doing with my life. I was always interested in art; it was suggested that I go into architecture so I could make money. So I went to college to study architecture but at the same time I kept creating some form of art. I was painting and sketching all the time, trying photography, once again I was jumping around. After college I worked for an architectural firm for a while and then I ran off to the Caribbean following a dream as a kid of being a pirate - Long John Silver, young Jim Hawkins and all the high seas adventures of Errol Flynn. At some point, I started to realize that I didn't have to do just one thing, that I could work on a lot of different things and sometimes all at once. That is where I started to get into art in a serious manner while running a dive shop, making boat deliveries and attempting to start a hydroponics farm. Now working in art almost exclusively, I am doing the same thing by working in different disciplines at the same time. I'm not sticking to one discipline but trying to work and express what I feel in whatever form that I think will convey the thought or emotion that I felt or saw or heard.
Where do I begin? I could go into a long dissertation about light and shadow, it's effect on color and mood, or how nature, society, politics or any number of things come into play. Art is all around us, everywhere we look. Creativity comes in all forms from a chef in the kitchen to a child playing make-believe. The truth is that art comes to me in all forms and in turn I then put into play my interpretation of what I feel, hear, see or touch using whatever media I feel best expresses the emotion I was feeling. I know this is not the typical artist statement based on theory and technical art jargon. I never know where the inspiration will come from or what form it will take, it just seems to happen. I'm not sure I want to question the how or why I have a feeling and it might be safer not to question it too much in order to keep friends, family and the general public from questioning my mental stability.
In the end, I just want to create. I want people to see something in my art that they can relate to and it doesn't have to be what moved me to create the piece or what I was saying to myself by creating it. Everyone has a different life history that affects how we interpret something that we see or feel or hear and how that emotion moves us. People have been moved to purchase a piece because they could relate to the title or it brought back memories from their childhood and in some cases it was not even close to what caused me to create that particular piece. I know people like to hear the story behind the art that moved the artist to create it but what makes it worthwhile to me is for them to tell me that they smile every morning when they see my art or they feel like dancing every time they walk by it or any of the other reasons people have told me how my art affects them.
Richard sees beauty in the human form and condition with all of its flaws and frailties. He also draws inspiration from everyday objects and society with its influences and contradictions.
Blue Rondo A La Turk
