Willy Bo Richardson was honored to be one of the eight SITE Santa Fe SPREAD finalists. SPREAD is a community dinner that funds artists’ projects and creative initiatives. SPREAD seeks to provide micro-grants for innovative projects and artworks conceived by New Mexico-based artists.
The 5.0 project was initiated with a request for proposals by SITE. Artistic merit and innovation were emphasized “We shifted the focus this time to really encourage studio-based artists,” said SITE Santa Fe director and chief curator Irene Hofmann. “We had many applicants, and the eight finalists are in different stages of their careers but all committed studio-based artists. So it will be a different kind of presentation as we hear artists talking about their work and what inspires them rather than pitching particular projects.”
A wide range of media is represented in the artistic endeavors of finalists Janet Abrams, Chris Collins, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Jane Lackey, Mindy McGovern, Tom Miller, Willy Bo Richardson, and Lucrecia Troncoso. The winning artist can use the SPREAD grant to support ongoing work.
Transcript from Richardson’s speech (you’ll just have to imagine the slide show):
My first recorded work of art was an arc of family shoes. This was made when I was still crawling. I’ve always been attracted to beauty, simplicity and symmetry. These are the same principles we use to explore the world around us, and to build fantastic things- like particle accelerators. This is a process of discovery. The scientific method. In my painting practice I found an efficient way to work with these principles. I am looking for order without ignoring complexities.
I was born and raised in Santa Fe. I spent 15 years away, and returned with my wife Kim to slow things down, be close to my family and have our daughter. When I first met Kim, I followed her out to Philadelphia. At the time, I was deciding between writing and painting. I wrote a really bad coming of age novel, and the next year I checked myself in to graduate school for painting at Pratt Institute. Creative cycles don’t always match up with the calendar year. Half-way through my thesis I turned my paintings to the wall and started over. I had seen a Robert Irwin scrim installation at the Dia Center on 22nd st, and was totally blown away. I needed to rethink what painting meant to me. I began with proportion, and painted vertical lines as a measuring device. Then I added color, and fell in love. This evolved into my current practice.
The first painting I made in my new studio is a triptych that spans over 13 feet titled “Wet Snow Falls From a Pine Branch”. I was coming down the mountain in March. A branch sprung up from the release of the heavy snow, and that moment caught me. Finding and remodeling my new studio delayed working on this painting. By the time I was ready summer was on its way, and I was unclear how I was going to connect with that moment again. I was driving down Old Las Vegas hwy, looking at the parched foothills, seeing the dead trees and cleared spaces. I thought about the feeling of drought and how closely it feels like recession, I thought about my friends that have no partners in their lives, and the struggles that each of us encounters. I wished for it to rain physically and metaphorically – and decided I would make this painting even if it was hot and dry.
By chance, and with good fortune, when I started the painting, and while working on it, torrential rains came down in Santa Fe, and the mountains were covered in a blanket of snow. “Wet Snow Falls From a Pine Branch”. The title has 7 syllables, like the central line in a Haiku. I often think of my paintings as Haiku scenarios.
I will I will keep moving. I will move more. My job is to bring good fortune and creativity to the community. If you feel a connection to my work and want to help give me a push, thank you for supporting me in this next level of my growth.
Thank You
More Information: SITE Santa Fe Presents SPREAD.
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