Saving Face
What struck me immediately when I saw Richard White’s work is that in each piece the face is different – not one expression is the same. “I love faces. That’s what gets me really excited.” he told me, and that love is evident in his drawings, paintings and photography. The expression of the mouth and eyes is the premier focus of every page. To Mr. White, this focus is well placed, “Faces are the first thing people learn to recognize.”
Richard White is a working artist that has been discovering his love of faces since he attended New York University in 1970. He was indecisive about his major and enrolled in half art and half psychology courses. He enjoyed the art classes more and spent the following semester building a portfolio and studying with painter and printmaker Juan Gomez-Quiroz. He earned a BA of Fine Arts in 1973 and then in 1976 an MFA degree, both from State University of New York Buffalo. Since that time he has been a painter, photographer, graphic designer and web site developer. He currently teaches illustration and graphic design at Gibbs College in Farmington.
Much like any art, drawing faces is a craft that requires practice. Mr. White said that he creates at least one drawing a day. “There are piles and piles of them,” he said, “Paintings are more of a project. I feel a block sometimes with painting because it seems so much more monumental. You have to mean it. But once I get started, I roll.” He began painting again in 2007 after a 20 year hiatus. “After college I was a color field painter. I was abstractionist. Two things happened – the entire avant-garde was changing and in the abstract I was missing representation. So I began doing photography. “
Photography changed his work significantly. “When I moved to Connecticut in 1995 I built a dark room and never used it. What did I want to do now? I took the representative in photography and painted. I don’t care so much about avant-garde now, I just want to paint.” Mr. White also said that photography made him a more attentive, detail oriented drawer. “I practiced in the era where you had to pay someone to touch up your photographs. I paid attention to composition and details of images. “
My eyes fell on a painting of a woman sitting in water and staring intently at the viewer. “She’s so intense,” I said as we stood in the center of his exhibit. I asked where he received his inspiration. He said he paints friends, family, colleagues and students. He takes his inspiration from life, from a model or a photograph, and then “the page takes on a life of its own. They’re not really portraits of people – they’re more like character studies. Halfway through you begin to make decisions about the expression. By the time I’m working on that I don’t pay much attention to the photograph. The people are the starting point, the inspiration.” Richard went on to describe that his subjects do not always see themselves in the finished product, but that is part of what he wants to say through his art. “Faces are only a part of someone. The viewer takes what they see – the faces are characters, like actors or actresses.”
Currently Mr. White has his work permanently displayed in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. In a more local attraction his drawings and paintings are showcased at the Galleria Vivace in Rocky Hill at Falcetti Music and will be on display through February 5th. His photography, paintings and drawings can also be viewed on his website, www.whitesite.com.
