I’m so grarteful to those who have offered support, encouragement & sweet inspiration on this, my creative/artistic journey of exploration & discovery.
In grade school, as a young boy of six, in first grade, I recall Mrs. Clark, my art & music teacher. With her natural charisma, humor, and the joy & bliss she brought to every situation, she made expression a natural and accepted thing for me to do. In the music portion, she taught us more folk interpretation & I still love it. Then for the art section, one early March, we were to do a drawing for St. Patricks Day observance. Being partly Irish, with a Grandmother whos home was full of Irish blessings, this boy of 6 was geared to go. bahaha. The classroom was decorated for the holiday and on the door was a paper cut out of a Leprechaun, so I drew it, with my 64 color box of crayolas. Several months later it was selected for the gradeschool exhibition and competion. I remember looking at the massive wall of art, then low and behold, I had received 1st place. It wasn’t so much the winning that appealed to me, as it was knowing I had created it and was being validated and encouraged for doing so. In 2nd grade, Mrs. Clark then awarded me a certificate of merit, which became an art scholarship, in which I went to art classes thru the park district. I was up for the award in 3rd & 4th grades as well, & I received a second placement one year. Advocating the arts, was one of my grade school friends mother, who was picture lady & she always brought in iconic reproductions by some of the worlds finest artists works, that were part of the permanent collection at the Art Institute Chicago, the museum we field triped to often. Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Dali’s Invention of Monsters, Picasso’s The Old Guitarist, a Degas, a Renoir, a Chagall, Warhol & of course the Monet’s, are most remembered.
There is a notation in my gradeschool info, by my mother… when asked what he wants to be, when he grows up, “Ricky says, ‘An Artist’ ” & I was off to middle school. I loved music, writing, science and of course art, and was frequently involved in special projects regarding each of them. My mothers brother, my Uncle Bobby, would sit for us on occassion. I remember a time where we sat at the kitchen, he encouraging and coaching me as I drew. Another Uncles wife, my Aunt Joan was a artistic type. She’d come to some of my school music events and inspire me with her artworks. One piece she did was a large pastel cityscape. I recall studying it and thinking, I wish I could do that and wonder if I could do it as well. I still have it in my art collection. Mrs. O’Neil was my 7th & 8th grade art teacher, a gentle and radiant being, I think may have had a little crush on her, to be truthful. That said, 2 art projects and her guidance, stand out for me. One was a fairly large musical instrument collage, that I used a book of wallpaper in which to create it. There’s a photo of it, somewhere around here. Another still, was a sculpture, where I took a random scrolled block of wood & used it as a base, spinning copper wire into a figure of a french artist, beret and everything, standing at an easel. She gave great praise for that one, unfortunatley it disappeared into the vast space of the past.
At some point in middle school I saw Kirk Douglas portray Vincent Van Gogh in ‘Lust For Life’ and I was seriously hooked on creating art. Now off to High School nearly all my elective courses were art or humantities. I recall several art teachers, one being Mr. Kampka, a fun loving eccentric who taught humanties and film, who fostered my love of the arts. I had several courses with Ms. Petersen who seemed to have a handle on my inner angst & turmoil, yet gently & enthusiasticly moved me forward. My friend Scott and I had several art classes together, cartooning being one where we had a playful drawing bantor going between us. I’d sit in most of my classes sketching, drawing & cartooning my teachers and classmates & they’d egg my on, collecting them for themselves, many of whom I did more formal soft-pastel portraits for, at some point. Dad, got me a commisssion gig designing and painting a large resteraunt sign & Mom gave me my fist professional set of pastel and floor easel, that I use to this day. College was not a direct route, but I took classes when I was able. At College of Dupage, the first real painting I completed was 5x6 foot and strapped to the roof of my car, teach encouraged my use of symbols and mythology. My sculpting class was more figurative and my output more surreal, both teach and students must have liked them, as they almost always went missing. At Kishwakee Jr. College I took an Art History Class and wrote a term paper on the DaVinci & the Mona Lisa and how it factored in modern culture, in which I I truly learned an appreciation of all the ways in which people have expressed themselves in the eras in which they’ve lived. At the Art Institute Chicago, adult education, a Rembrandt style painting class involving live models thrilled me. The teacher, who’s name I cannot rememebr now, saw something in what I was doing as she took me through the school to show me what it was all about, the possibilities, and invited me to study with her at her studio in Oak Park, although I was unable to do so, at the time. Creating art became the balance act & ballast of my life.
Since then, each commission, each collected artwork, is a sign post moving me forward. Encouragement & accomplishment, the long & short of it, whatever your life situation is, you can move forward and do what you can do, when you can do it, if you only decide too & always look to those peolple that encourage that internal dream, whether secret or revealed.
1st place blue ribbon at age 6 by 8, an art scholarship