Thank you, Rick....
A fitting way to start this piece on artist Rick Hunt. I was turned on to Rick when Angie Bowie started
sharing his pieces casually on Facebook and I was immediately spellbound, and admittedly a bit overwhelemed, albeit in a
very righteous way. Ricks art at first drew me in with lines that flowed endlessly while at the same time completing each
image as an entity in its own. These images combine to produce a masterful work that tells a story. Take your time when
you soak in his creations, they're not something to glide through. It's a study whether you like it or not, and well worth
the time invested. He is constantly working, as he puts it, "I would rather create than talk about art..."
Rick was born and raised in New Hampshire, and apparently quite a test for his teachers as an artisticly gifted, free-spirited adolescent. Rather than elaborate, I think Rick's presskit says it best...
"To absorb a Rick Hunt piece is to jump onto the barreling momentum of a freight train or the relentless charge
of a moving current. Electric and always in motion, the stream-of-consciousness color and energy of each draw-
ing or painting is at first bewildering, and then insanely compelling. By the time you've gotten your bearings,
you realize you've arrived in the middle of the conversation and are already wondering where the next turn will
be.
Rick's early childhood interests in drawing and art, combined with an active and
constantly curious imagination fueled an almost inevitable career as a painter and artist, much to his mother's despair. At
school, his teachers were confounded and helpless in the face of his impish humor and insatiable need to turn perspectives upside down.
"I would draw Egyptian hieroglyphs on my exams," he chuckles. "Then I'd turn them in."
It was almost a foregone conclusion that an office job would be tantamount to purgatory. Taken under the wings of mentors
such as Kenneth Westover and Claude Brusseau, Rick discovered a love of Picasso and intrigue with Dali, curiosity with
Da Vinci and a querulous exasperation with Man Ray. His own artistic style - a mix of psychedelic madness and stream-of-
consciousness humor, is both overwhelming and engaging while also keeping a healthy sense of whimsy and humor. Having
worked as a substance abuse counselor and seen the plight of the less fortunate in society, that might seem a difficult
prospect. But he points out that even the darkest experiences can have joy and color in them. "All of my life experience is
food for my art," he explains. "Without dark, you can't havelight. Van Gogh knew that. That's why even his saddest
paintings have hope in them."
With strong ties and ancestry to the Abenaki, Rick travels New England with his wife, as the "Laughing Couple", presenting
and performing integrative Native storytelling and art to schools, museums, and other organizations. He also collaborated
with fellow artist and writer Angie Bowie on Cat-Astrophe, an innovative children's story about an abandoned cat who finds
a new home and makes a new family with fellow misfit adventurers.
"The story of Pooh Kitty is a story about finding value in yourself, and discovering that family isn't necessarily in who
shares your blood," he says. "It's about who shares yourheart. And really, that's what a lot of my art is about. I'm always
exploring and searching for connections." From Rick's "partner in art-crime", Angie Bowie...
(c) 2016 Motherlode.TV
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