Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rick Gradone. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Rick, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I have always been an artist, but I also always had a day job. My day job was actually pretty fabulous for a long time. Being a studio hairdresser for the fashion world afforded me the opportunity to make my own schedule to some extent, make good money in shorter time spans, and see the world on someone else’s dime. So I was used to a certain standard of living. As I got older, I would structure my artistic pursuits with the idea in mind that there would be a moment when I could “replace” that day job with my art full time, but I kind of “woke up” during the pandemic when all the work was gone and realized 30 years had gone by. I could see that I had prioritized safety over art and I had to really decide which path I was going to choose. I chose ART. It was terrifying. But by centering my art practice and finding ways to make money as a secondary pursuit, suddenly the whole action and reaction around my art CHANGED. I was now more adamant and convinced about what I was doing and why, and this internal stance seemed to shift the way it was being perceived from the outside world and suddenly many opportunities were coming to me. Don’t get me wrong, I think art WITHOUT risk is valuable and important too. But art WITH risk is exciting and exhilarating and inspiring to EVERYONE. We all want to watch what is happening when people take risks because it reminds us that we can take risks. That no matter what, there is room to grow and change and become. That doing something differently can create a different outcome that we very much desire.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a visual artist that works in various mediums. The primary focus of my work now is ROCKS. I imagine these works as icons for a religion that has the earth as its central deity. We all have access to rocks and collect them at different times in life. They are thousands to millions of years old and we never really think about that fact. They care not at all about national lines or human interactions, so they are a simple reminder that the earth is extremely old and all powerful for us, and that we are these temporary organisms that have a very short time here. This work evolved out of a spirituality for me that has formed from aging, and thinking, and accumulating wisdom about life. Rocks change extremely slowly over time, and I think there is something calming realizing we all fit into this giant organism that holds us and includes all of us. I truly believe this perspective could change the way we treat it and each other, so this work is as much about philosophy and social action as it is about beauty. My works stands on the line between figurative and abstract, and it is committed to BEAUTY. Alot of it imagines shrines and temples to the earth, so the ultimate goal is to move toward public sculpture and architecture that would give us these unified spaces for community and contemplation. We so desperately need a religion now that doesn’t divide people, and most religions on the planet do. In this envisioned religion, there is no way to not be a part of it. Humans and every other organism are part of this earth. Everyone and everything has a place.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

It sounds pretty basic, but artists need to have their basic needs met as easily as possible so they have time to imagine and dream and process what is happening in the world and reflect it back. In the most basic terms, that is cheap rent, space, an economy and financial support for their work, livable wages in day jobs. Artists help us see what is actually happening and provide different ways of thinking that open the door for all kinds of creative solutions to the world’s problems. If we dont have a robust grant system, if we don’t sponsor inexpensive live/work situations, if we don’t PRIORITIZE them, then we are missing out on what they offer to the world. When you look back at the most sophisticated cultures of the past, the MAIN thing we have to prove and express it, is ITS ART. I think we need to look backwards and recognize that if we are not investing in culture and the people who make it, it means our civilization is on a downslide and will surely be replaced. That is the history.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think all of my work is about relationships at the end of the day, which may seem hard to imagine when you look at it at first and see a painting of a rock. But I am consistently amazed by how narrow the human view of the world can be and how much suffering results from it. I am fascinated by the history of religions, and it seems clear we need new ones less entrenched in dogma and colonizing histories and more focussed on what unifies us and calms us down. What we KNOW is that the earth is what holds us all. We cannot live without it. And it is unbelievably and mind bogglingly beautiful. This place (earth) is AMAZING. I think it can be easy to agree on this. The way this connects people to each other and the planet is what drives me.

Contact Info:

• Website: rickgradone.art
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rickgradoneprojects/