Meet Ricardo Harris-Fuentes | Artist, Curator, Educator, and Healer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ricardo Harris-Fuentes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ricardo, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
My standard answer for why I chose to be an artist is because I had no choice. I joke that being an artist is a disease. If you come down with a case of being an artist, there is no cure and you have it for life. I think this is partially true, but I was also attracted to the perceived freedom of being an artist. Artists always seemed like the ones who had the time and space to stop and smell the flowers of life. I wanted my days to be open to just looking at the world and exploring its mysteries. I thought the best way to do this was to become an artist. Later I realized how hard it is to create this type of space for oneself, mentally, emotionally, and perhaps most importantly economically!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I make black light and light sensitive paintings that are based on my experiences with Shamanic Journey work and Buddhist Meditation. I like to make paintings of spaces, plants, and landscapes that I feel have a special energy to them. In Shamanism there is the idea of “places of power” that offer special powers to those who visit them, often in the form of healing. I like to think of my paintings as tools for healing, or as mental “places of power.” As far as I know, there aren’t any other artists using the materials I am using to communicate the ideas that I am interested in. What I think is unique about my paintings is that they offer an enveloping experience of light that almost becomes a journey or a pathway into another dimension. This may sound a bit strange, but I am most proud of my work when a small child walks up to it and wants to touch it or dance in its glow. This tells me that it is communicating or vibrating on the right level. My journey to where I am today is a story of countless setbacks and lessons learned combined with a persistent determination to never give up. I think choosing to be an artist is like calculated madness, see quote above about art being a disease. I think the only real secret to success that I can offer is to never give up and to keep coming back to it. This is really what makes the difference. One example, I applied to graduate school four times before I was accepted. I have also made countless terrible paintings that were utter failures, but even though I claimed I was going to quit being an artist in fits of despair, I never actually quit. I think this is the road of all great and not so great artists.

The thing I want people to know about my artwork and brand is that there is a lot more to life than we understand or can see. It is my understanding, and a view shared by many, that there are multiple different realities occurring at the same time. My work seeks to show how this might be the case through the use of pigments and materials that change in appearance depending on the angle of the viewer and the light environment in the room. Furthermore, everything is energy and telling the story of energy through painting is a timely endeavor for the challenges that face the world today. Much of what I have learned and communicate in my work comes from indigenous and non-western wisdom traditions, which I believe offer a powerful medicine to heal the most pressing problems that humans face today.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I think I would suggest a combo of art and nature mixed in with a nice range of restaurants. Going back to the idea of places of power these would be my places of power in Los Angeles. Nature: The Hog Back Trail up to the Tom LaBonge lookout in Griffith Park, Leo Carrillo State Beach with a dog, the Huntington Gardens, Grizzly Flat trail in the Angeles Crest Mountains. Art: The Museum of Jurassic Technology, all of the galleries in the Bendix Building downtown, The Hammer Museum at UCLA, LAXART, and Bridge Projects. Food: Superfine Pizza in dtla, Canter’s Deli on Fairfax, Oomasa in Little Tokyo, and Joy on York Blvd. I also really loved my visit to the Magic Castle a few years ago. It seems only slightly complicated to get a ticket, but was one of the most fun nights I have had in LA.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Whenever I meet an artist’s family or partners at an exhibition or event honoring the artist, I like to take a moment to thank their loved ones for their tremendous support to the arts. This has definitely been the case in my story. My family, friends, and partner have literally carried me across the finish line so many times. I don’t think it is accurate to look at a work of art and think that one person made it. It takes a community of people sharing their time, energy, resources, and profound love to bring a creative work into the light of day. I could never thank my loved ones enough for all the support they have given me over the years. Along these lines, I would also like to thank Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles, which is an artist collective gallery that I am a part of. Tiger Strikes Asteroid is a collective of artist-run exhibition spaces with locations in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Greenville, South Carolina. Joining this collective and working in community supporting other artists has been one of the single most important and nourishing career moves I have made in my life. I am eternally grateful to this group of humans and the organization for the way it has transformed my creative practice and life!

Website: www.ricardoharrisfuentes.com

Instagram: @ricardoharrisfuentes

Other: www.tigerstrikesasteroid.com