We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ronald Walker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ronald thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

When I was a child I loved art but once I hit Junior high I grew self conscious and decided I hated art. In high school I had a terrible registration time and got stuck with an art class. Wish I could say that I fell in love with art at that time but I can’t. I hated the class and was relieved when it was over. I vowed never to take another one. Well I guess one should never say never as the very next semester I had an even worse registration time and got stuck with two art classes. However for some weird reason something clicked and before that semester was over I not only decided that I loved art but wanted to be an artist.

Ronald, 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 started out trying to make a living just by painting but soon learned that what and how I wished to paint was not the most successful economic approach. However I did not want to compromise my vision so I eventually turned to teaching art first at college and then 30 years of teaching elementary art. I must say that one of the things I am proud of is during the years of teaching I continuously pursued my art, both painting and showing. One of the big challenges I think an artist has is deciding what to paint and how. I started out as an oil painter but lost my sense of smell to turpentine. I thought that this may not be a good sign heath wise so I started to work in acrylic. Acrylic paints were great except I did not like the surface all that much so I turned to gouache and have worked with gouache on board for the past twenty or so years. The question of what to paint was tougher in some ways and yet easy. I have always lived in a suburban environment and have had an intense interest in the origins and functions of art. Combining these I created a style that I call “Suburban Primitive”. This style is in essence a synthesist of my interest and my life. It owes its appearance to primitivism, surrealism and symbolism, to name a few influences.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I mentioned being proud of pursuing my art even through a long teaching career. I did this by learning to paint and being productive in very short periods of time. Some years I would have a classroom and so would have my paints set up at all times so if I even had a five minute break I could do something. I refer to this as waves on the sand, as long as you are working each day you will get work done. Some years were more challenging, I would set up and work in a supply closet and I even spent several years where I painted from my car. The one advantage to the car was great natural light! One of the big things I had to learn was painting smaller, when I started teaching my work was quite large, up to 9’x12′ in size, eventually I grew to love a size of about 11″x14″. I have been retired for a year now and still am painting in this size.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Years ago one of my painting teachers (Gerd Koch) said that as an artist you never really had to grow up or retire. I’m not sure I fully understood what he meant at that time but as I have aged I think I finally have a grip on it. There are very few things as an adult where you get to play in an imaginative way, art is one. I am retired from my teaching days but as a full time artist am never bored and quite busy!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Ronald-walker.pixels.com
• Instagram: ronaldwalkerartist