Bryan Ritchie
My art is a collection of visual statements derived from social interactions, media influences, daily rituals and memories. In particular, I enjoy exploring social and political paradigms through implied narratives. I question and parody the circumstance behind each statement using indeterminate yet seemingly familiar characters that are perpetually in a state of birth, coexistence and destruction.
My working process stresses intuition and invention with an emphasis on mark making and character development. Using automatism, random marks on paper coalesce to suggest characters with identities and purpose. I regard the characters to be a manifestation of the initial impulse that inspired the work. Both the characters and their environments grow through a system of lines, texture, pattern and color. I strive to make connections between dominant and subdominant forms and to establish poignant relationships that suggest multiple interpretations or outcomes of the narrative. From these strategies emerges an art that embraces the area between abstraction and representation, allowing me to be both direct and allusive, to present facts while withholding the truth.
The world I present can be cynical and misguided. If I am successful, however, the work is also mischievous and ironic. While my art often comes from a serious place, it is also my desire for the viewer to find humor in the unlikely juxtaposition of forms and to empathize with the visual characters and their narrative dramas.
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