We recently connected with Richard Bledsoe and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Richard thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My most meaningful project was writing my book, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization.
Even though I believe works of art need to be able to speak for themselves without relying on extraneous verbiage or non-artistic concerns, art’s role in our society needs discussion and reformation. For 7 years, I worked on a book on that summarized my ideas on how art is both influenced and is an influencer on our way of life.
On top of working, painting, volunteering, and generally having an active life, I took time after my job and on weekends to formulate an extended analysis of the culture: how we arrived at the artistic crisis of relevance we’re undergoing, and how it can be fixed. I worked persistently, but progress was slow.
In 2017 I was struck with a sudden, unexpected illness: a detached retina. I ended up having two surgeries for it, and my recovery required me to lie first on my side, then facedown, for weeks, as my eye healed.
I realized the opportunity this incapacity presented. I would use all this literal down time to finish my book.
I began the day after the first surgery. At first I tried to work on our laptop, lying on my side on the couch. It didn’t work for me. It was a terrible strain to try and read. So my wife, artist Michele Bledsoe, and I came up with an alternative method.
The previous Christmas Michele gave me a little recorder so I could easily capture all the ideas I’m always having.
While I couldn’t read or write, I could talk. I started dictating my book into the recorder. When she came home from her job, Michele transcribed my thoughts into the computer. I quickly learned to organize my statements into a fairly consistent flow. There would still be many revisions to do, but the structure of the unfinished parts of my book began to fill in.
Eventually I got well enough to be upright again, even though I had to wear an eyepatch. I spent hours each day on the computer, expanding the content Michele had documented.
Long story short, I finished the first draft of my book just before I was well enough to return to my job. I was on leave for almost three months. After revisions and editing, my book was published in November 2018, a little over a year after my surgery.
I wrote Remodern America for a general audience, not just the art scene.
Remodern America discusses what art is and why we need it. It explains why Modern art happened. It reveals the current destructive Postmodern culture, and the corrupt forces that created it. Best of all, it describes Remodernism, the new ethos which will replace failed, deceitful Postmodernism.

Richard, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve spent my entire life in pursuit of creative expression. I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, and in all the years since my graduation I have never stopped making art.
I am an intuitive artist, working not from observation but from visions that arise in my mind. The potential subject matter is limited only by the freedom of imagination, my capacity to comprehend what is presented to me, and the skill I have to render it visible.
I am not after a naturalistic recreation of the world. Painting is a dream world, and requires its own particular forms of creation. Its beauty transcends realism. Other artists might work in the great traditions of landscape, still life, portraiture, or figurative painting. The visions I present are a blend of all these different explorations into a single unified image.
I’m sort of a mutant form of a history painter, the genre once considered the highest form in the hierarchy of Western art, but much neglected in the modern and contemporary art worlds. The difference is story telling.
Rather than make a detached work of art for art’s sake, emphasizing merely formal concerns, history painting depicts a moment of drama. It shows action arrested for contemplation, rich in implications of past, present, and future activity. It injects the element of time, suggests consequences and resolutions are pending, and extends the liveliness of the art beyond the edges of the canvas.
My avocation as a painter has led to many adventurous projects. For two years I lived in a primitive warehouse art studio without a kitchen or effective climate control. Later, my wife and I helped found an artist run gallery, art studio and event space that flourished for 5 years in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
While working as artist, I discovered an ability for writing. I have served as an arts columnist for several publications, I maintain a blog that features my essays and educational links, and I wrote a book that summarized my philosophy about the importance of art.
As a curator, I’ve organized dozens of group exhibits giving others opportunities to show their work. Most recently I have been working with the nonprofit organization Seeds for Autism to host pop up art shows that bring together community artists with young adult artists on the spectrum.
My wife and I formed an LLC for our art business. We keep our overhead very low by utilizing our home as studio and office space. Another savings is our DIY approach as content creators. Instead of paying others to generate our media, we have learned the skills of web design, graphic design, video production, book publication, and we also maintain our own independent online retail presence. We sell paintings online and our books are available on Amazon.com.
I offer original artwork for sale, and sometimes take commissions as well. For example, a patron recently bought a painting I made of the legendary blues singer Robert Johnson, and commissioned me to make two more paintings that told more of his story.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

For too long our culture has had misguided priorities. Art is largely ignored as irrelevant or alienating. But rather than thinking society’s problems led art astray, the opposite is true: when art turned away from God, our civilization followed.
Art shows us how to be. If we are to reform our culture, we must reform the arts first. And to reform the arts, we who paint, who write, who make music, whatever the call may be, we must first put ourselves in proper relation to God.
I am inspired in my art activism by an international art movement called Remodernism. Remodernism was first codified in a manifesto by UK artists Billy Childish and Charles Thomson. It is the recognition of the spiritual renaissance taking form in the arts all around the globe.
My goal is to educate the populace that art is for everyone

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Art has been stolen from the people. As a result, most do not believe it was ever for them in the first place. They do not understand the creation and appreciation of art is an essential part of the human experience. Art is even older than agriculture.
For too long, instead of being reverenced as a communion for all, contemporary art acts as a wedge, a social signifier of elitist attitudes. Officially sanctioned art often emphasizes theoretical formal matters and sociological notions designed to exclude, rather than engage, the general public.
Art has been marginalized in our culture by the mismanagement practiced on it by elites. In doing so, they have blocked access to powerful resources – denying our society the inspiration to live up to ideals, the encouragement to think and feel deeply, the yearning to harmonize with truth and beauty. As a result the mass audience has turned away, instinctually rejecting the superficial and nihilistic aspects of contemporary art championed by an imperious would-be ruling class.
I want the audience to discover that original art is a vehicle for fascination that enriches life. My wife and I live in a home filled with art – our own, works by friends, pieces we’ve purchased. It’s like living inside of a treasure chest.
That magical experience can be accessible to anyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://remodernamerica.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/remodernamerica
• Twitter: @remodernamerica
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@remodernamerica9080
• Other: https://remodernamericastore.square.site/

Image Credits

Michele Bledsoe