Artist Spotlight: Ricky Watts

Name: Ricky Watts

City/State: Petaluma, CA

Website: www.rickywatts.com

Contact: studio@rickywatts.com

It is evident in Ricky Watts’ painting that he truly understands color and composition. He attacks his canvases with a meticulous technicality, but he also displays an incredible knack for improvisation and spontaneity. The problem of making a complete, engaging painting contains the answer for Watts, and it’s apparent that he has fun utilizing his artistic toolbox and imagination to solve it.

His signature murals and canvas work are painted with insane layers of intertwined, vibrant color spectrums that will blow your mind. They are whimsical entities that immediately attract attention and draw the viewer in for a visual rollercoaster ride.

While his paintings focus on pleasing the eye with vibrant abstraction, his illustrations are surreal and cerebral images meant to please the eye and give the mind a work out. His latest collection of illustration, “Destination Unknown,” contrasts colorful, playful imagery against semi-tragic scenery painted in a more subdued and monochromatic fashion. These images evoke both sentiments that there is hope in a tragic world and that we, as humans, seem happy to destroy a beautiful planet.

Watts has combined technical training in graphic design, street experience writing graffiti and a repetitious self-teaching of painting and illustration to build a solid career in fine art. His never-give-up attitude and unwillingness to stray from what fulfills his artistic passion has allowed him to develop a distinct style and assemble a growing, loyal fan base.

He’s one of the good guys. He is confident in his ability yet humble. He’s happy and thankful to be painting, and he doesn’t mind giving back to his community as proven in the giant mural project he painted for the Phoenix Theater in his hometown Petaluma, CA. A well-produced video exists on his website documenting the project, which I highly recommend watching.

Riding momentum from that mural, a huge commissioned piece for the stage at Outside Lands Art and Music Festival and a solo show at Oakland’s ZeroFriends Gallery, Watts is primed to start making even bigger splashes in the art world in the very near future. 

Watts’ current group show with Marcos Lafarga, Aaron De La Cruz, Apex, Ben Eine and Hannah Sitzer, “Project One Walls,” just opened September 25 at Project One Gallery located at 251 Rhode Island, San Francisco, CA 94103.

His work is also available for private viewing by appointment at his Petaluma studio/gallery. 

Can you tell us a little about your education and training and how it has helped you as a professional artist?

I’ve always been into drawing, for as long as I can remember. I took art classes in grade school and often took lessons to stay busy during summer vacation. After high school, I knew I loved art but didn’t think it was realistic to be a professional artist. I was into computers so I went with plan B and studied graphic design. I enrolled at The Advertising Arts College in San Diego in 2000. After my first year, the school was bought out by The Art Institute of California so technically I graduated from AI. The funny thing is I researched AI and decided that was not a place I wanted to go for college. Sure enough, out of frustration with the curriculum, I left after two years with my AA degree. I toyed with the idea of finding another school but I was comfortable, designing graphics at a print shop. The longer I worked my day job, the more I wanted to paint and draw so I started working on art in the evenings and weekends. In 2004, I had my first solo show and it was all I needed to realize art was where my heart is. I left the print industry in 2009 to pursue art full-time and design graphics on a freelance basis. It was the best decision I ever made. I love every day that I get to be creative and not slave to a printing press. I don’t have much formal training in fine art. I learn from repetition, experience and collaborating with other artists. I am, and will always be a student of the arts.

How have you grown and sustained a solid career as an artist for nearly a decade?

I can’t believe it’s already been a decade. I feel like I’m just getting started. Being an artist takes a lot of hard work, countless late night grinds. Complete dedication to the craft and never taking no for an answer. Digging deep and powering through it when your body has had enough. Constantly networking with other artists and galleries. Staying in front of people via exhibitions, social media, etc. I try to say yes to every opportunity. It’s not always a big paycheck but it gets my work in front of people who might not be familiar with my work.

At GroundSounds we really appreciate artists who stay on their grind. How do you stay motivated to work so hard at your craft?

It’s rarely ever a motivational issue to stay on the grind. Art is something I have to do. A blessing and a curse at the same time. It’s all I ever think about. It’s all I want to do. But I am human and my motivation often comes in waves. There will be days (or even weeks) that I don’t feel like doing anything creative. I think it’s healthy to take breaks and recharge the batteries. When I do feel like I’m in a creative rut, I like to go to art openings or museums, hang out with artist friends or grab my camera and check out places I find inspiration from. Deadlines always help to stay motivated. Sometimes I’ll set fictitious deadlines just to stay on track.

What is ZeroFriends, and how did you become involved with them?

ZeroFriends is an art and apparel company based around the brilliance of Alex Pardee. Located in Oakland, California, they have a retail store in San Francisco and often do pop-up shops in cities across the country. I’ve known Alex for a long time, we originally met through mutual friends. Over the years, we have collaborated together on projects and had some great road trips/adventures. ZeroFriends is also a loosely based art collective. It’s more a group of friends who all do art, whether it’s painting or photography or sculptures. I had the opportunity to exhibit works at the ZeroFriends (Oakland) gallery in January. It was one of the most exciting and satisfying shows I’ve ever done.

You’ve been into graffiti and street art for a long time. How have you seen this world evolve and become as relevant as it is today?

I started messing around with spray paint in 1993 at the age of 13. I had no idea what I was doing but it was fun. My friends did it so it was a way to relate and fit in. We didn’t have the internet back then, there were no how-to videos on youtube. We had crap paint and had to steal tips off oven cleaning products for fat caps. I learned from trial and error. Sneaking out night after night, cutting class to paint a morning spot under a bridge. I’m proud of those years and I would do it the same way all over again if I could. I feel like using a high quality brand of paint now is reward for the years of watery Krylon fill-ins. It’s been very interesting to see the acceptance of graffiti or street art on an international level. It’s provided many opportunities for artists of my generation. I’ve enjoyed being witness to the modern graffiti evolution.

I see a lot of the Bay Area in your work. How has this area influenced you and driven your work?

The Bay Area is home. I love it here! Although there are many places I still want to visit, I don’t have the desire to live anywhere else. There’s so much to do, so much to see. I love incorporating images into my work that I have a personal connection with. Referencing things like the Fox Theater in Oakland or Duane Flatmo’s “El Pulpo Mecanico” art car from Burning Man bring memories of good times with people I love.

It seems like you have a very playful and fantastical mind. Can you tell us a little about where that comes from? 

Ever since childhood, I’ve had a wild imagination. I wish I could pinpoint where it comes from. It’s often just the weird shit in my head that spills out on to the paper or canvas. 

Your work often contains fun, colorful imagery contrasted against dark, semi-tragic images, especially in your illustration. What is that all about?

Fantasy or dark art has always attracted me. In my early 20’s, H.R. Giger blew my mind. Disaster intrigues me. I’m not sure what my fascination with it is but the root it comes from my fear that humans will eventually destroy the planet. There’s too much happening too fast. Consumption is out of control; technology is developing faster every day. When is enough, enough?

Your signature work is your colorful, intertwined waves that you have referred to as “space rainbows.” How do you keep making this style of work fresh for you and the viewers? 

This style of abstract painting taps into a subconscious that I don’t get through my illustration works. My drawings are very methodical and planned out. The “space rainbows” are a way to let loose and let the paint do the talking. These pieces build off themselves and the process is very spontaneous. Very little planning goes into it but the execution remains the same each time. For example, I always start in the upper left hand corner. Each piece is unique to itself and I find great joy in executing precision is something difficult to control like a spray can. 

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