I met Ricky when we were in a show together in New York by members of the Society for Art of Imagination. So I was fascinated by his new show which I felt reflected the ‘Wonder’ of Nature. Since this month theme is ‘Wonder’ felt the work from this show ‘Beautiful Wild’ fitted in well.
Della Burford
Says Natalie Jourk from Beautiful Bizarre Magazine when interviewing Ricky about the exhibition Beautiful Wild : “I wanted to find out more, so I chatted with Ricky to better understand his ongoing journey.
Pushing past the breaking point
“At the beginning of the pandemic my creative powers definitely dwindled.” Ricky shares. “It was so hard to be inspired when the whole world seemed to be falling apart, and then to put brush to canvas seemed impossible. I’m always hard on myself if I’m not being productive in the studio because it is my ultimate passion, so it was really soul crushing to have all this free time off work and not be producing art. But it got to a point where I couldn’t take it any more, a breaking point, and I had to paint.
After I hit that breaking point, I became super productive and inspired. I started a whole whack of new pieces and finished a bunch of in-progress works. After the initial lull in creativity, it seems I found a spark and surged forward, and it felt totally awesome. I got so much painting done, and I was more fearless to try new things.”
Ricky describes his paintings. Conclave’ is about groups of special people creating spaces together to be truly themselves, without fear of prejudice or discrimination. It’s much like the spaces that my friends and colleagues create together to be ourselves.
‘The Message’ is a painting that came to me in a dream, and to me it is a representation of the global civil rights movements that are happening today.”
“My painting ‘The Mission’ is about my belief that the ultimate mission of humanity is to spread life throughout the cosmos. It is based on a dream I had in 2013. In this dream, I was in a space suit exploring an ancient city on the moon. It was huge and completely rusted, and I had this idea that gargantuan spaceships were once built here. In the middle of the ancient rusted city, I suddenly encountered a pristine stainless-steel ladder. I approached it, and then placed a potted plant on the ladder, and my mission was complete. I woke up then, and knew I had to paint this image.”
As stated in the article in Beautiful Bizarre : “Ricky Schaede’s solo exhibition may be rounding up at Maggiolly Art, but it can still be enjoyed online throughout September 2020. The online exhibition features all 30 paintings created over the past two years, sharing Ricky’s tribute to the beauty of our natural world. Be sure to visit Beautiful Wild before it ends!”
Create a Dream, with Della Burford 