RAWart101

Ronald Allen Wickersham:    RAWart101@aol.com

RAWart101 STUDIO:

606  Sunset Drive, Oceanside, California  92058

760-310-1525

Art gently rubbed RAW…

 At first glance, the viewer sees shameless color, complex texture, and spontaneity. The creativity is raw and it’s uncooked, perhaps rough. However, a closer examination reveals an unexpected elegance along with an ambiguity, that is carefully inserted through out the work.

 Painted juxtapositions hold meaning-- often playful themes or an occasional social or political message, but the real meaning is always left to the viewer. Thoughts run rampant with unfinished phrases. And trains of thought that barrel through the station, slowing down just enough to splash their way on to the canvass. Corrected spelling becomes a casualty.

 Some images may have the feel of having been applied because time was running out and it seems as if the artist is in a hurry to tell us something …  or for the audience to tell him something! Sometimes rudderless, the art beckons for the viewer to give it direction. This work is not for everyone. This work is for those who are not afraid to examine or reexamine notions they have always assumed to be true. The subject of raw art may even beckon for the eyewitness to take a side. Often leaving us with more questions than answers, it becomes clear the artist does not take a side

  With his use of authority figures such as religious icons, politicians, kings and celebrities, we can see the artist's conflicted views of the human situation in an amusing and non contemptuous manner.

 The figurative work, may exhibit inevitable aloneness. However, the art seems to creatively illuminate the darkness and celebrate rather than hide such difficult emotions. 

 Quilted together in a patchwork of fragmented thoughts, images and color make for a puzzle. leaving the solving for the viewers. Some paintings are a study in contradiction and conflicted emotions, beliefs that at best, seem uncertain as if the artist is standing on always shifting ground. His graffitist work illustrates this best, aggressive movements, and vibrant colors seemingly there to awaken tired heroes; the onlookers are asked to hearken back to a day time of youthful innocence, perhaps face some of or own conflicts we harbor as an adult Moreover, the artist challenges the viewer to relive their first drive inn movie.