Artist Statement

Nature as Teacher, Artist as Student

Dick Crispo: Artist, Teacher, Historian and Ethnologist born 1945 in New York City. Winner of 32 awards, he has had 72 one-person shows, and is in 30 public collections.

His view as an artist has mixed Eastern and Western history with an observation of nature. He combines Eastern philosophy or the Tao and his love of fat oil painting. These coastal paintings reflect the kind of integration that the artist sees in his daily life.

The late Californian artist Millard Sheets called Dick’s work very challenging and a tribute to the materials he uses.

“An artist has to listen to the paintings and the medium that they are using. In the end the painting will tell us how to paint it..

I spend a lot of time just looking at nature and people- learn more from looking and letting nature teach me to see and compose based on the order in nature.

I also spend a lot of time looking for what is different in the viewwhat makes it different. It’s our differences that make us universal and makes nature more interesting.

As an artist, I work in oil, acrylic, water color, gouche, collage, pastel oil and powder, wood block and etchings. I feel that nothing is an end in itself. I'm currently learning computer graphic art.”