Richard Russell
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I have been making collages since I was six. After my first attempt, I was scolded for cutting up my parents’ magazines and getting glue on the dining room table (otherwise, my artistic paths have always been wholeheartedly encouraged by them.) Undaunted and now in mid-career, it is still my favorite medium and meditation. This meditative mindset flows out across collecting, dissecting, categorizing and filing my source materials, and down into the selection, cutting, and composition of my collages. There's a jar on my work table for all the used X-acto blades. My file cabinets overflow with botanical prints, anatomy specimens, vintage beefcake magazines, old letters, and foxed and mildewed papers. I keep small flat-files for separating the pre-cut body parts; arms, legs, hands, each get a tray. I am drawn to the human body as subject matter for so many reasons: we are each, to a greater or lesser degree, familiar with the territory; we come in such a wide array of variations; we are capable of gorgeous contortions; we are image whores, craving to see and be seen; and, in the fading world of analog media, we are only as temporal as the paper we are printed on. For several years I worked strictly with anatomical and medical imagery, focusing on our feeble attempts to communicate with ourselves when our bodies are in distress. My current work pulls me out to the body’s surface and its relationships with the spaces it flows through.
I prefer working in collage because of its inherent nose-thumbing of context and intention: identity, sexuality, gender, taxonomy, and meaning can all be reassigned with the flick of a sharp blade and a smudge of glue stick. I take a perfectly innocent bouquet and taint it with porn and innuendo. I love finding that perfect, fluid, Baroque arabesque between sinew and stem, and my inner Dr. Frankenstein smiles at the newly formed creature on the table before him.
- JoinedJune 2005
- Occupationartist 24 hours/creative services manager 8 hours
- HometownAtlanta
- Current cityAtlanta
- Countryusa
- Websitehttp://www.myrichardsart.com
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Testimonials
Some of the best collages I've seen and an antidote to the whimsical sugar-frosted pink fairy cute baby and birds' egg style scrapbook images that seem to be mainstream collage art. Lucky Devil 7 takes collage back to its dada roots- here the surreal has a dark edge, the veneer is stripped away to show the chipboard u… Read more
Some of the best collages I've seen and an antidote to the whimsical sugar-frosted pink fairy cute baby and birds' egg style scrapbook images that seem to be mainstream collage art. Lucky Devil 7 takes collage back to its dada roots- here the surreal has a dark edge, the veneer is stripped away to show the chipboard underneath, the skull is visible beneath the skin. The apparently random association of scraps of the past have a powerful emotional appeal. It is, in fact, the stuff of thought.
Read lessI don't know how or where LD7 is getting the images for his work, but I definitely love them all, the simple images carry each and every peice. Either predominately busy surfaces or not, all are interesting. His unique and creative touch with these images and wax really set his work apart from the usual flickr pic… Read more
I don't know how or where LD7 is getting the images for his work, but I definitely love them all, the simple images carry each and every peice. Either predominately busy surfaces or not, all are interesting. His unique and creative touch with these images and wax really set his work apart from the usual flickr picture. LD7 is concerned with the body, and it is his major theme. You will notice that almost every inch of his work is taken up as if you are looking through or in between something; the transparencies are wonderful, as if you're looking through skin! These layers of wax give each peice a very old, and eerie feeling. sometimes it feels like that they were in the back of a drawer for 100's of years, and you've just discovered them. Showing that there are still treasures to be found in this world after all. It is evident that time and effort went into each and every placement. LD7's work at times, may slap many viewers in the face as too simple, but his work really strikes a chord with me.
Read lessI have successfully went through all Lucky Devil 7s pictures from beginning to end n and you should too, I'm very impressed and love all them, I wanted to favor all them! Great work!