This latest Artist Showcase highlights the interesting collage work of Ken Ricci. If you would be interested in having a showcase of your work on the blog, please email kdoutsiderart@yahoo.com.
The motion pictures shown in this theatre are for mature adults over 21 who are not easily offended
When did your interest in art/creating begin?
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I started creating collages three years ago, covering the top and first three drawers of my black filing cabinet. The images and graphics I cut, pasted & sealed, came from a couple of boxes of ephemera I’d saved inside the cabinet. They came out as four collages and after creating them, I began an unfolding series of collages. If I could point to the beginning of my interest in the visual arts, it would be during my job in the art department of the Strand Book Store in The East Village, NYC. All those amazing art books.
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So…predictable
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What is your starting point for each piece?
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Since collaging the original filing cabinet I’ve been working on 1/8″ hardboard ranging from 2″x4″ to smaller 8″x24″ panels. As the size of the panels change, so does my approach to the work. The starting point for each depends on the size of the panel. If I am working on a large piece like a 2″x4″ or a 20″x40″, I start in the upper left corner and improvise my way across and down the panel in a series of problem solving steps using whatever images, colors, shapes or textures I have at my disposal (collected & cut-out… and maybe cut again).
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My current preference is for the 8″x24″ panels because the size allows me to ‘rough out’ the whole piece. But even then, between the time I make a layout and the time I get the glue onto it, it always changes. The true starting point for any one of my works is the ‘visual vocabulary’ of the cut-out pieces I’ve chosen to use on the panel at hand. Generally included: architectural images (past & present), evocative – sometimes mysterious – figures, designs or images, either from nature or man-made.
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I don’t know what happened… the evening started out so well
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Who/what influences your work?
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Selected images strewn then gathered on the worktable are the determining factors of each panel. It is an on-going process as they are culled from old magazines with advertisements, city planning booklets, architectural and interior design magazines or discarded books on almost any subject.
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To name artists: in some way possibly the work of Hieronymus Bosch, Romare Beardon, and George Tooker has influenced my own perspective.
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Come in… the dream just started
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What do you hope the viewer gets from your work?
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Engagment and personal resonance with a particular panel one can relate to.
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Ya know I think he’s gonna make it
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What do you think about the term Outsider Art? Is there a term that you think works better?
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Well, when I think of Outsider, I think of Colin Wilson’s meditation on the Outsider. In many ways that sense of disquiet is, I think, evident in my latest series of captioned panels. Beyond that, the ‘Outsider Art’ category is a refreshing, free spirited notion and it has an advantage in that the only expectations in play are your own.
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You’re next. Your name will be called
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What are you working on at the moment?
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My most current work includes a series of black/white/grey captioned panels – the captions are more than a title. They are part of the work being viewed.
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Oh man, I left my keys in that cab
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Where do you see your work taking you in the future?
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Where ever the material takes me.
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kdoutsiderart 
Kate – I can’t thank you enough -post looks great – it is something I can pass around and will help promoting my showing at Boricua College in October – thanks again – keep up great work
best Ken
Brilliant!!! Incredibly evocative images !