Richard Armstrong

I suppose I began as a colorist, having had coloring book competitions against my cousin, Jim, with our grandfather as the judge, back in the mid-fifties.

Earlier in my career, I pursued the end result of a preconceived notion.  Later, I found that intuition and the sub-conscious carries a deeper truth, as the Surrealists knew.  What comes from the sub-conscious depth begins with a simple line or beginning movements of form, investing baraka — Spiritual Power –  into inert material. Blending and weaving color, carving stone (moving with the grain, fissures, and color); sculpting clay by giving it direction and then following it; or fleshing out elementary gestures in drawings give rise to something living in the ether, waiting to manifest into conscious manipulation, supported by aesthetic sensibility and training.

My works unfold out of the balance and interplay of color, or the concave/convex relations found in my sculpture, revealing worlds beyond my pre-conceived imaginations.  My work is comprised of meditations on movement with resulting themes of joy, nobility and spirit.

Most of my 3-dimensional pieces were created by moving clay from an initial disciplined yet sub-conscious manner, allowing the subject to emerge out of the movement of levity and/or movements of concave and convex, usually exploring archetypes of polarity.  Every piece is a surprise. Similarly, my 2-dimensional work begins with an initial random impulse of two colors in a side by side, top to bottom or center/periphery composition.

There is a common thread in all of my work. It begins, aiming for the noble and heeding inner images fluttering about my head; then working with and blending these elements.  Inspiration stems from Goethe’s observations of color and metamorphosis in nature, as well as with Rudolf Steiner’s indications about the artistic impulse: that the balance of art must strive toward – between expressionism and impressionism.  It has proved very rewarding.

When working, I am transported into a calm, enduring state of focused pursuit.  In the end, the work is captured as a statement, either obvious or cloaked in symbolism.  The process lightens my heart in its spontaneity.  It satisfies my yearning toward the craft, gives my muse a voice and reveals the truth of myself to myself and maybe to others as well.