{"id":10078,"date":"2018-09-19T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T06:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/?p=10078"},"modified":"2018-09-18T06:19:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T06:19:42","slug":"gay-summer-rick-transporting-viewers-in-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/gay-summer-rick-transporting-viewers-in-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"Gay Summer Rick: Transporting Viewers in Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/summer-5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10098\" src=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/summer-5.jpg\" alt=\"summer 5\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/summer-5.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/summer-5-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/summer-5-648x432.jpg 648w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/summer-5-288x192.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gay Summer Rick is a quintessentially Los Angeles artist. It is in her color palettes, in her images, in the innate glow of her work. Even when she is not creating works that epitomize Southern California, her LA-state-of-mind fuses her images with something recognizable, wonderful, and soulfully West Coast.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10094\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10094\" style=\"width: 648px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-8.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10094\" src=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-8-1024x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"A1608-05_0062\" width=\"648\" height=\"648\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-8-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-8-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-8-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-8-330x330.jpeg 330w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-8-96x96.jpeg 96w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-8-648x648.jpeg 648w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-8-192x192.jpeg 192w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-8.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10094\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A1608-05_0062<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>She says “<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The work will likely transport the viewer to a very calm and quiet place. My paintings are impressions from moments on my journey. I have discovered an unexpected beauty in commonplace elements within the urban landscape.” She adds “Once I took the time to really see and experience that, the tension associated with being stuck in the middle of the freeway, or circling over a city for landing, endless delays, noise, etcetera, the positive elements outweighed those stressors and beauty won.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Rick says that her color palette changes depending on where she hopes to take the viewer and the feelings she wants to share.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-12.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-10090\" src=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-12-1024x1018.jpeg\" alt=\"gay 12\" width=\"648\" height=\"644\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-12-1024x1018.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-12-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-12-300x298.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-12-96x96.jpeg 96w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-12-648x644.jpeg 648w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-12-193x192.jpeg 193w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-12.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I have a thousand images running through my head that I know I will paint. They are the impressions I have taken with me of moments in time in places I\u2019ve been, primarily throughout Los Angeles and New York.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Sometimes the paintings are saturated in color, and warm, and sometimes they are muted with light, and cool, she relates. “It just depends on what feeling I was left with from that moment in time, and what I would like to share with the viewer from that experience.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-9.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10093\" src=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-9.jpeg\" alt=\"gay 9\" width=\"719\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-9.jpeg 719w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-9-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-9-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-9-330x330.jpeg 330w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-9-96x96.jpeg 96w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-9-648x649.jpeg 648w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-9-192x192.jpeg 192w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 719px) 100vw, 719px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rick says she’s always lived on one coast or another, east or west. “There\u2019s something about the moisture in the air where cities meet the sea, the diffusion of light through mist that, for me, has a calming effect. Being at the ocean gives me the ability to tune everything else out, breathe, and focus.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This sense of simply breathing and being is intangible and yet present, a thread of communion with the viewer through her work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-10.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-10092\" src=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-10-1024x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"gay 10\" width=\"648\" height=\"648\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-10-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-10-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-10-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-10-330x330.jpeg 330w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-10-96x96.jpeg 96w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-10-648x648.jpeg 648w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-10-192x192.jpeg 192w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-10.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Perhaps it has something to do with the scientific phenomenon of the ‘Blue Space’ effect and the change in negative ions from open water. The coast has always had this effect on me, and this carries into my work. From my studio I can see the bay, and even in my cityscapes that quality is definitely present in my work.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She embraces a sense of peace in her process and her creation.\u00a0 “As loud as the city or the ocean may be, the light and atmosphere that comes through in my work is always quiet and calm. There\u2019s something about the water. I\u2019m drawn to it.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-6.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-10096\" src=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-6-1024x1021.jpeg\" alt=\"Gay 6\" width=\"648\" height=\"646\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-6-1024x1021.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-6-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-6-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-6-330x330.jpeg 330w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-6-96x96.jpeg 96w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-6-648x646.jpeg 648w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-6-192x192.jpeg 192w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-6.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rick has a new body of work opening October 13th at bG Gallery’s new location on Ocean Park Blvd. at 30th in Santa Monica. Titled <em>Skyways and Highways,\u00a0<\/em>her new body of work includes her well-known urban and coastal atmospheric land and cityscapes, but includes images culled from “<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the sky with a window-seat view over the landscape. The view is gorgeous up there,” she enthuses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Her inspiration for this body of work came in part from a change in flight patterns over the past year that found her looking up at air traffic and shaking her head, initially.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I\u2019d be sitting in a friend\u2019s backyard in Los Angeles and we would have to stop talking because jets were flying low in this new concentrated pattern overhead. But then I thought about how my view of highway traffic changed as I began to notice just how beautiful the view from the highway really was, with headlights and tail lights, the colors of road signage, and the silhouettes of palms, power lines, and light poles against the sky…So, I thought about my most memorable trips, looked back through many photos and video from flights I had taken, and I even rerouted some planned travel, carefully choosing which side of the plane on which to sit, to ensure that I had the best window-seat views over places I thought I might like to paint.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She adds “When I look at these paintings I feel like I am traveling. For me it is almost Zen-like.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-7.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10095\" src=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-7.jpeg\" alt=\"gay 7\" width=\"1008\" height=\"344\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-7.jpeg 1008w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-7-300x102.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-7-648x221.jpeg 648w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-7-563x192.jpeg 563w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1008px) 100vw, 1008px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Along with this upcoming show, Rick currently has paintings of<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0fireworks and surfers in a group exhibition, <em>Love in Color 2<\/em> at Art Project Paia on Maui in Hawaii, which runs through November. She’ll also be a part of a group exhibition, <em>Out and About<\/em>, opening this coming weekend, September 22<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nd<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at Rebecca Molayem Gallery on Fairfax in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-11.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10091\" src=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-11.jpeg\" alt=\"Gay 11\" width=\"576\" height=\"461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-11.jpeg 576w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-11-300x240.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Gay-11-240x192.jpeg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As to the dreamlike nature of her work that many viewers note, she says “<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because it is all about capturing the feeling of a particular moment from some place I\u2019ve been, I include elements that make a place recognizable, sometimes by only a small detail. It is never an exact representation, but it is exactly my impression of a moment in time.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In regard to her process, Rick stresses that her work makes use of an environmentally responsible process. “<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I use oil paint and palette knives to create my paintings. No brushes, no toxic solvents. This process not only helps me tell a visual story through layers of paint that create a history and a certain vibration in the juxtaposition of colors, it also helps me achieve a goal of being a good steward of the environment.” It takes the artist one to three months to complete a painting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Summer-4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10099\" src=\"http:\/\/diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Summer-4.jpg\" alt=\"Summer 4\" width=\"640\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Summer-4.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Summer-4-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Summer-4-128x192.jpg 128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Asked for a few words that describes her work best, Rick considers before replying “<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Calm. Quiet. Mnemonic. And, I\u2019ll throw another in because I keep hearing it from people when standing in front of the work: luminous.”<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Come feel the glow.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Genie Davis; photos provided by the artist and by Genie Davis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gay Summer Rick is a quintessentially Los Angeles artist. It is in her color palettes, in her images, in the innate glow of her work. Even when she is not creating works that epitomize Southern California, her LA-state-of-mind fuses her images with something recognizable, wonderful, and soulfully West Coast. She says “The work will likely … <a href=\"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/gay-summer-rick-transporting-viewers-in-beauty\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Gay Summer Rick: Transporting Viewers in Beauty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[23,354,1128],"class_list":["post-10078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-uncategorized","tag-bg-gallery","tag-gay-summer-rick","tag-skyways-and-highways"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gay-5.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10078"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10102,"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10078\/revisions\/10102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diversionsla.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}