Artist Q&A with Richard Metz

Why did you become an artist?
Being a visual artist grew in me slowly over time, but it was always the only path forward in my life. The process of making visual art is so satisfying and so all encompassing to me, that of course I wanted to keep doing it.
I also have a strong environmentalist side, and to some extent these have merged over the past 20 years. Being an artist now is how I explore nature and merge with the natural world. It is how I want to encourage others to explore and protect the public natural areas near them.
I have subtle visions of images, sometimes touching on a feeling from my past experiences that move me very much, and I feel so strongly that I want to portray them in my work. I have also been very moved by expressionist artists who have come before me including Chaïm Soutine, Jean Dubuffet, Phillip Guston, Susan Rothenberg, and Pierre Bonnard. Native American, African, and Polynesian art have also been influential to my work, as well as Illustrators Theodore Geisel, Franz Masreel, Lyn Ward, and Art Spiegelman.
How is your work different than everything else out there?
Some of my work is in more traditional formats, and some has struck some new ground. The tree paintings seem to be an original format that I came upon late in grad school. They are different in several ways; they are ephemeral
The works decay as life is born, lives, and dies. So much art work battles with nature, to be preserved for ever, and adds to … Click here to read more