|
David Richardson is from Waterford, Michigan. He
studied drawing and painting at Harding College but abandoned these pursuits
seeking a degree in science instead. After earning a B.S. in Biology in 1988,
Richardson returned to painting and briefly settled in Chicago where he
pursued it full time. In January of 1991, he joined the United States Marine
Corps intending to leave painting permanently behind; within a year, though,
he resumed painting. Because of the transient lifestyle of the military,
Richardson augmented his media with portable materials such as linoleum cuts,
watercolor and oil pastel. Richardson's themes range from the human figure,
his travels overseas, the Jungian concept of Archetypes and historical motifs
and his English and American Indian ancestry.
Trojan War Series: 2003-2004
During the summer of 2000, David Richardson
visited Tokyo on several occasions. On these visits, he noticed the Japanese
used shaped stones with short Kanji inscriptions to identify residences and
businesses. In time, the stones weather and take on a distinct character as
they become streaked from the frequent rains, serve as hosts for mosses and
lichens, and tilt this way and that. The stones are somewhat similar to older
gravestones made of limestone or slate in the United States and are intended
to be permanent; overall, they struck him as brooding, mysterious and an
expression of a complex culture of which he was almost entirely unacquainted.
When Richardson returned to North Carolina in
January 2001, he painted two paintings based on his visual recollection and
emotional reminiscence of the stone markers. Shape was the predominant feature
of the painting; he called on of them "Stone Monuments" and used a photograph
of the painting on an announcement for an exhibition in November 2002.
Richardson found the image of the piece had a similar effect on viewers as the
Japanese markers had had on him — an inanimate object evoking emotion.
In January 2003, Richardson returned to the
stone monument theme. This time, however, he somewhat disregarded the image of
the stone and searched for other motifs to achieve results similar to the
"Stone Monuments". He relied more heavily on color combinations, frequently
referencing Johannes Itten's work on color theory. The brighter color
combinations of the new work tended to decrease the brooding character the
Japanese stones and the "Stone Monument" possessed. Perhaps the most
mysterious and enchanting aspect of the Japanese stones is the calligraphic
Kanji inscriptions, and, searching for a similar effect, Richardson used a
checkerboard motif inscribed with binary code referencing the universal
computer language of the late Twentieth Century / early Twenty First Century.
Around the time Richardson returned to the
stone monument theme he was also researching ancient Greek warfare for a class
he was teaching on the origins of western warfare. The characters of Homer's
"Iliad" were constantly on his mind as he worked the paintings; the two
pursuits merged to the degree he titled the paintings using characters from
the "Iliad". These mythic figures of the Bronze Age — Agamemnon, Achilles,
Helen, etc. — are unknowable, mysterious and heroic. Using these names as
titles for the paintings helped Richardson associate the ideas he picked up in
Japan with occidental themes much as the binary code aided him in
transplanting the Kanji inscription.
In essence, each painting is a monument to its
namesake.
|