We recently connected with Peter Rippon and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Peter thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

There isn’t really a category that applies to me in your ‘interview’ process.

For over twenty years I ran a cabinetry and design company in New York City specializing in high end furniture and interiors. I came to this business via an art school and design education in the U.K. I arrived in New York as a painter and writer some years ago, and then morphed into design. Fortunately, my business was quite successful, but I hungered for more of a creative career.

In 2009 I closed down my company (Rippon Design) and began to make work for myself – specifically making unique Mirrors. These relate both to furniture and to painting. I’ve had several successful shows and to date I’m still continuing to make mirrors. I’m also involved in a property company in England – I was initially carrying out various design and consulting tasks for this company, I’m now one of its directors and the income I make definitively helps subsidize my main creative interest.

Recently I travelled to Japan where I spent a month viewing and absorbing its culture. The objects I make have no real comparative precedent in the contemporary art world. To try to describe them is pointless; you have to see them. In fact, if I could describe them succinctly, then I probably wouldn’t bother to make them! Over the years my experiences and travels feed my ideas – I guess you could describe it as inspirational.

My career has brought me into contact with folk from all walks of life. In a sense I attempt to reach people through what I make and do, probably in order to expand their ideas and their sense of wonderment. Hopefully, I succeed.

Peter, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was always involved in the visual arts in Europe. At a certain stage I became disillusioned at the direction the arts were moving there. Consequently, as I had fostered various contacts in the USA I decided to move to New York and support myself initially as a painter – I showed in a number of galleries both in New York City and in London. Then I devised and operated a cabinetry and design company (Rippon Design) and ran it successfully for over twenty years.

This experience gave me considerable insight into what clients need and want in design terms. It certainly expanded my horizon as far as dealing with people from all walks of life are looking for. I believe that I/we – my company – brought a good degree of pleasure both in terms of comfort (furniture) and spatial design.

Dealing with construction and installation of furnishings and all manner of concomitant skills from lighting to wall coloring gave me considerable insight into what I eventually wanted to do with my own personal work. In fact, the concept of Mirrors being both a kind of furniture, as well as a an object that hangs on the wall, in the same way as a painting does, arose from my years as a woodworking designer.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Throughout my life I’ve always been involved in the visual creative arts.

At one stage I was teaching in various art schools at graduate and post-graduate level. One of the first things I told all my students was that I was aware that they all wanted to be ‘artists’ and if they really were serious about making a career out of it they needed to fulfill the following condition:

They had to have somewhere both to live and work, and in order to do that they HAD to have some means of supporting themselves – not necessarily to do with the arts, in fact maybe better to have some kind of employment that would not distract or overwhelm them in terms of their artistic ambitions. If eventually, they met with success, both financial and artistic, this will be an experience that they’ll never regret.

To a large degree this is what I did, and I still believe this is true.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being an artist for me is, in a very specific way, its own reward.

As a result, throughout the years I have managed, because of my own ideas, to recognize the creative skills of essentially non-artistic professions and trades. A successful accountant, business person, doctor, farmer, builder, or anyone in practically all walks of life, if they are sincere and believe in what they do, bring a measure of creativity to that discipline. That sincerity, more often than not, brings its own reward in all manner of ways. Specifically and hopefully, a sense of individual accomplishment and pride in what they have done.

The different between an ‘Artist’ and them is often only realized by what an artist believes and does, having made something that has a universality about it that other skills or professions lack. This raises the question of “what is art”? There’s not enough room here to enter into that fully!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rippondes.com
• Instagram: ripponpeter
• Facebook: Peter Rippon

Image Credits

Peter Rippon