Peripherality

Based on two paintings I had made years ago, this series was created and sold off to fund an artist residency I attended in New Delhi, India in 2015. These paintings try to capture what now often looks like when we are focusing too much on the future or past and miss what is happening now. Right now, where are you?

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:34

Peripherality 1

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 2

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 3

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 4

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 5

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 6

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 7

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 8

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 9

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 10

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 11

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 12

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 13

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 14

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 15

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 16

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 17

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 18

12"x18" - Oil on panel

Peripherality 19

12"x18" - Oil on panel

"Staying present, then, means staying here - right here - and there are a few simple steps that can lead us to the experience of profound attention and a direct experience of the moment that we're in."

About the Artist

My name is Richie, though I often go by Mick. I was born in Syosset, New York, and raised in a military family that moved often, leaving me with a patchwork sense of home and a deep respect for change. I studied fine art at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, and today I live and work in Austin, Texas. This is where I make art, raise a wild and wonderful family, and collaborate with my brilliant wife, Suzanna - an artist and boundless creative force. You should absolutely check out her Interior design work.

Contact

Artist Statement

This series which I've started back in 1999 and spans almost 20 years in the making explores both the familiar and mundane through the shifting lenses of time, space, history, and aspiration. Travel (especially by car) is one of the most common experiences we share. For many, it’s tedious. For me, it’s a metaphor that never stops unfolding. There’s something profound about having left one place and heading toward another, all while the present moment slips past in a blur, just outside our focus. It mirrors life and the fleetingness of now.

On long drives, especially through deserts and plains, light and landscape converge to form what I think of as a 'drishti', a focal point that invites a kind of transcendent awareness. In those moments, the past, present, and future seem to collapse into one. The illusion of linear time falls away, revealing a sliver of the pure presence of now.

For me, the act of making art is much like this experience. I’m drawn to that same sliver between idea and execution, where instinct takes over and wonder lives. I’m not simply chasing a finished piece, but searching for something raw and vital within the process itself. My hope is that these works offer a pause, a moment for reflection, perspective, and perhaps even comfort in the routine rhythms of daily life. That they prompt viewers to consider where they stand in the flow of time, suspended between memory and anticipation.

Alongside this series is a companion body of work that shifts the focus away from the driver's path and toward what drifts by in the periphery. These pieces are painted in oil over acrylic or latex, and sometimes purely in acrylic. I work on both found objects and hand-stretched canvas, following wherever the materials and moments take me.

“I removed the freeway from its temporal context. Overpasses, cloverleafs, exit ramps took on the personality of Mayan ruins for me. Without destination, without cessation, my run was often silent and empty; there were no increments, no arbitrary graduations reducing time to functional units. I abstracted and purified.” ― Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Statement

This series explores the familiar and mundane through a perception of time and space, history, and aspirations. Travel for me, especially in an automobile, is about as common an experience as you can get. It is tedious for most, but I find myself captured by the metaphor of having left a place and headed to another, while the present blurs by in my peripheral vision. The simple metaphor of our lives and the fleetingness of now. On long trips, especially when occurring in deserts and plains, compositions of light and landscape create a Drishti - a point of focus that allows for a transcendent experience and ultra-awareness of place and time, helping me to contemplate the realities of time. The past, present, and future converge, and the illusion recedes to reveal a sliver that exists between the past and future - the now. For me, the artmaking process is similar to this experience. I'm aiming to find that sliver between idea and execution and remain there: I am not just seeking to achieve an end product but to find the raw, creative sense of wonder within the act of making. My hope is for the viewer to find perspective, contemplation, and consolation in the mundane business of day-to-day life and to consider the moment in time in which one exists in relation to their past and future. I have a coinciding series of paintings that focus on the peripheral passing moments rather than the driver's perspective of the past and future. In most of these paintings, I use oil on acrylic or latex, or just acrylic. I enjoy painting on found objects as well as stretching my own canvas.

fire