Would you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
My name is Rick Fox. I live and work in Somerville, Mass. I have a BFA in Painting from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, an MFA in Painting from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and I studied at Scuola Lorenzo De’ Medici in Florence Italy.
Could you tell us what you have been doing the past two years?
For the past two years I have been working primarily with oils in plein-aire, in the neighborhoods of Somerville, Cambridge, Wellfleet, MA and during a residency in the summer of 2008 in one of the Dune Shacks in Provincetown, MA. During this time, working outside in all seasons, in direct response to the visual world has compared to nothing in a very basic and exciting way.
Grass Dark, Provincetown, MA. - 14x18, oil on canvas, 2008.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
Dune Shadow, Provincetown, MA. - 14x18, oil on canvas, 2008.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
Horseleech Pond, Wellfleet, MA. - 22x30, oil on canvas, 2008.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
YellowEndofWinter, Somerville, MA - 14x18, oil on canvas, 2008.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
Could you tell us about your spray paint drawings?
Well I was actually working on them as I was working "en plein aire." The work evolved out of a few months of playing around with a can of flat white spray paint from home depot, black paper and some stencils I cut out of drawings I was making.
In my plein aire oils at the time, I felt that I was getting seduced by the sensuality of the oil paint, and the stencils helped me to focus on shape and decision making two things that were giving me trouble in my oil paintings.
Here are a few images of my spray paint drawings:
Beauty Life Series, #15 - 25”w x19”h, Spray Paint on Paper, 2007.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
Dune Shack Series, #4 - 25”w x19”h, Spray Paint on Paper, 2008.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
The imagery of the spray paint drawings was generated from specific dreams, from remembered place, from recurring daydreams and fantasy that demanded more conscious attention...and some of the images were just generated out of the process itself. Much of the atmosphere of the drawings is influenced from memories of childhood experiences in Wellfleet, MA.
Beauty Life Series, #7 - 25”w x19”h, Spray Paint on Paper, 2007.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
Tell us about your recent works? What’s the inspiration behind your works? How does it all start, what techniques and materials do you use?
My recent paintings have come on the heels of a working period devoted to dream imagery and automatically generated narratives. This new work was initially motivated by an urgent need to be immersed in and respond to the physical and conscious world “as it is”.
I wanted to make something directly related to the specificity of my visual experience of the world and to be willing, for a time, to let go of grand and unconscious “tail chasing” that I suddenly found myself preoccupied with.
Detail of Hoarding Abundance, Charcoal on Paper.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
Detail of Gill-net Monkey - 36”w x 63”h, Charcoal and Acrylic On Paper, 2003.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
The intuitive directness and physicality involved in working with the charcoal, ink, and graphite of my drawings, and the cutting, piecing, sewing, bending of the sculptures inform spontaneous meaning. Often what I stumble upon within my "process" is a fleeting and layered accessibility to potential metaphor.
Betrayal - 36"h x 82”w, Charcoal on Paper, 2003.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
Detail of Just Listen - 63”h x 36”w, Charcoal On Paper, 2003
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
Grounded in realism, my recent body of work has also been completely intuitive. While it has been important for me to respond without conscious distortion of form or color for intentional psychological impact, I have intentionally created space for improvisation, (for example) by a choice not to depend on the safety of accurate under-drawing.
Monkey - 58”h x 46”w, Charcoal On Paper, 2005.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
This work has been an attempt to keep a foot in the form and space of the visual world that I am physically inhabiting, at the same time to keep a consciously “imposed” aesthetic of “the world” at bay… and to move toward a consciously “discovered” aesthetic.
Schreber Series #1 - 25”h x 19”w, Charcoal On Paper, 2007.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
It is very basic, what I have involved myself with; the translation information (my perceptions of form and space) into relationships between shapes of color feeling, and within the limitations of my working surface (among many other limitations of any specific day), I organize those relationships.
Will Toad #2 - 25”h x 19”w, Charcoal On Paper, 2007.
Image courtesy of Rick Fox.
Please tell us about the awards and recognition you received.
I was the recipient of the NEA/William James Foundation Grant, which I used to set up an art program at the federal prison in Ayer, Mass. I also earned grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation for painting.
Your current and forthcoming exhibitions.
Illuminations
Exhibit at Massachesetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston MA
7E and 8E Yawkey Building
June – Septemper 2009
Opening Reception: Tuesday June 16, 2009 from 5:30-7:00pm
10th floor of the Yawkey Center for Outpatient Care
http://www.massgeneral.org/cancer/Illuminations/Illuminations.aspx
The Works Gallery, Wellfleet, MA
Paintings Exhibition
July-October 2009
Short Films on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/fairfieldporter
Rick Fox: Portraits by Heidi Mandalay
Rick Fox: Beauty Life by Ambrazo Fuerte
Rick Fox: Sign Intervention)
Contact Information:
Rick Fox
226 Pearl Street
Somerville, MA 02145
(617) 538-1360
rfoxsend@yahoo.com
web.mac.com/rickfox1
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