Early works

Early works (1970s)

During this period Rick explored plastic materials like clay, as well as beginning a fascination
with metal as a construction medium. See below for comments.

	'Watch'	Contour drawing, pencil on paper. 1975
	'Self-portrait'	Contour drawing, pencil on paper. 1975
	'Mugs, real and not'	Glazed reduction fired stoneware. 1975
	'Cannibal'	Slab and coil constructed stoneware, reduction fired, glazed and oxided. 1975
	Untitled	Stoneware slab and coil and press mould construction, reduction fired, oxided. 1975
	'Captain Kirk's Discovery'	Stoneware fired and metallic overglaze. 1972
	'Venus, Goddess of Love'	Mannequin and vacuum cleaner parts, shoes, wooden box, carpet, paint, plastic tie. 1971
	'Decapitated Grasshopper'	Soldered copper wire and sheet, walnut block. 1971
	'Grasshopper'	Welded steel. 1972

Rick's comments:

'I was one of those kids who littered the family home with zillions of little 'art works', always
presenting my parents with something new. Some lasted the distance while others were
rather quickly, and surreptitiously, disposed of by my parents.

Sometimes wonderful things happen: after having an uninspiring academic experience in
a Southern California boys' boarding school, I spent the final two years of my high
school education at Garfield High School in Seattle's central district. My boarding school
art teacher, Eduardo Catalan, motivated me to think bigger in my artworks, making the
transition from palm-sized sculptures like the 'Decapitated Grasshopper' to the much larger
'Grasshopper.' Grasshopper was started in boarding school, and finished at Garfield.

Garfield was an amazing place for me - the Federal Government of the time had a program
designed to keep students in disadvantaged areas in school longer, by creating specific
centres of excellence in different schools that would hopefully attract the students off the
streets and back into the classroom.

Garfield was endowed by the government's 'Magnet Program' with huge funds to develop
an exceptional fine arts program. Another school developed a world-class math and science
facility under Magnet Program funding. Garfield's art program was heaven-on-earth for me.
The school had exceptional art teachers and art facilities that rivalled those of many universities.
For me, it was a great case of being in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately
for the school's administrator, and the Magnet Program administrator, not many of
Garfield's student population took advantage of the art facilities, which became the
domain of a small bunch of 'crazy white kids' like myself.

In the courtyard outside the art rooms were gas fired ceramics kilns, including the enormous
'Big Mother' that Matt Patton built. Huge kilns, great experience for high school kids
doing cone 10 reduction firings to get vibrant stoneware glaze colours on pots and pieces.

My art pieces on this page made after 1973 were created in my off-duty time while I was
serving in the US Navy, either in San Francisco (Ruby Baird O'Rourkes Castro District
ceramics studio) or San Diego (University of California at San Diego). Again, great
facilities and wonderful people to work with.

One of my Navy superiors saw some of my creature-type ceramics and asked,
'Clise, are you in some kinda therapy out there or something?'
Which I suppose was true. Art was my escape and therapy.

In any case, I had an amazing early introduction to the fine arts world.'

December 2004