The Art, Baby!

I try to match medium to style with most of my work, using anything from graphite, markers, color pencils, inks, watercolors, acrylics, mixed media, oils, et cetera, depending on the mood of the artwork. I prefer to work on surfaces with texture, something with tooth to it, and if the surface hasn’t got enough I give it more by applying either a heavy gel medium or a fast-curing gesso.

For the most part I work alone in the studio, with the exception of the family cats who always seem to be on the wrong side of any closed door. I use music to work by that echoes the nature of my current project: jazz, classical, flamenco, good ol’ rock’n'roll, rhythm ‘n’ blues, and select movie sound tracks.

Most of my ’serious’ works are inspired/spawned by my own memories, dreams and nightmares. I’m heavily addicted to research and tangent-chasing — I see strong parallels among the world mythologies, causing me to dig around for humanity’s forbidden histories. So I try to peel back the veneers imposed upon civilization and the human psyche to see what lies beneath them, working to decipher what I find there using the tools of symbol, archetype, and metaphor.

Visit my work at voluta.com, and let me know what you think.

- Ryl