Artist Statement                                                                                      F. Ric Blum

Being an "artist" for me means the act of making an object by hand which is a visual experience, an expression understood only by virtue of  visual intelligence alone. It is something that requires no explanations nor words to justify it.   Beauty-vitality, the product of  visual intelligence, is what I strive for.  Nothing else.  It is the innermost expression of human existence on a level of communication  immediately perceived by anyone.  That is the idea.  It is the targeted mark or "bull's eye" that must be hit every time. The subject of a painting or sculpture is only the means to hitting the mark  when, once achieved,  is at once its actualized Form, its essence.

My work has become a matter of spontaneity governed by my ability in allowing my hands to speak through the medium, whichever I choose, as I watch it take Form from a distance.  Everything in the painting or sculpture is a composed  expression  experienced as one that can be no other way,  which is its beauty-vitality, and is evidenced by looking at the painting or sculpture itself. Nothing in it , not even the slightest detail,  can be out of sync nor even the smallest bit "off "  balance  in its complete essence.  Nothing can detract in it at all from its  most simplified "beauty", and it must make overall agreeable sense to my sight as I view it all at once.  A painting, sculpture, or drawing must bespeak of perfection, and nothing else,  when viewed.  It is at that moment everything in it is "just so" , and nothing further to it can be done without starting all over again.

There is no way I can conceivably overemphasize how important it is to hit the mark in its essential Form, unconditional beauty, fundamentally truthful vitalty; all one and same visual experience we call "art."  That  kind of  "art",  is art.

When I began, I struggled continually with where to put things into a painting to make it “work.”  I could not really paint as long as I kept trying to paint. The day came when I stopped trying to paint, and that is the day I actually started painting.

Sculpture just happened to be there for me from the beginning of my career on.

The drawing  simply continues one way or another

                              
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