Meet James Rieck | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with James Rieck and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi James, what’s the most important lesson your business/career has taught you?
The biggest lesson I’ve learned as an artist is to endure. Making art isn’t easy, and it’s an emotional rollercoaster. You never know if your work is good enough, and the successes don’t arrive on a schedule. But over time, I’ve realized that endurance isn’t just about persistence—it’s about trusting the process. Inspiration strikes when you’re relaxed and unhurried, not when you’re forcing it. I’ve learned to stay ready for those moments.

Endurance also means weathering the ups and downs of a creative life. You need to save during the good years and stay patient through the lean ones. Most importantly, you have to trust yourself. Following someone else’s idea of what you ‘should’ create never works in the long run. True growth and satisfaction come from following your instincts, even if it feels risky or uncertain.

This lesson has shaped everything I do, from how I structure my day to how I approach my career. If you can quit making art, you probably will. But if it’s what you’re meant to do, you learn to endure.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve been painting for most of my life, and I knew early on that this was what I wanted to do. At 15, I saw the Picasso retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, and it opened my eyes to seeing myself as an artist. That moment set me on the path to art school.

After graduating, I moved to NYC and worked in a gallery. It gave me some perspective on the art world, but I was young and just trying to keep a steady income so I could focus on painting. My apartment was too small for a studio, so I moved back to Baltimore, where I lived in a low-rent warehouse with plenty of space to work. It gave me the time I needed to paint, but it wasn’t a setup I could sustain long-term.

Eventually, I moved to San Francisco and found jobs painting scenic backdrops and murals. My job and studio life started to overlap, and I was learning a lot about materials and techniques. Over time, though, I felt my personal work was getting overshadowed, so I went back to graduate school in the early 2000s.

Before grad school, I’d been painting from family photos, trying to connect my art to something meaningful. In school, I started using mid-century advertisements, especially 1960s department store catalogs, as source material. I was drawn to the idealism in those ads and how they sold the American Dream. Reimagining them in paintings let me strip away their commercial agenda and inject a personal psychology. I’d crop the ads severely, cutting off the models’ heads to remove their identities and shift the focus to body gestures. Without the context of selling a product, these gestures told different stories, inviting viewers to project their own meanings.

After grad school, I began showing my work in NYC and started to expand my source material to include online images, magazines, and other found imagery. For a while, I taught art, balancing that with selling and exhibiting my work. Teaching was rewarding, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do, and I needed a change in my environment, so I moved to Los Angeles.

Living in LA brought new energy to my work. My paintings became brighter, more colorful, and more playful. Eventually, I moved to Joshua Tree, where I now live and paint full-time. I suppose maintaining a life where I can paint every day is what I’m most proud of. I’ve also returned to painting from family photos again, allowing for more personal meaning, which has brought my work full circle in some ways.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
That’s easy, my wife, Judy Lichtman. We met in art school, and she’s been my partner in everything since. In the early years, she took on work to support us both, and later, when she went back to school, it was my turn. Then, when I went back to school, she carried the load again. Over the years, we’ve always found ways to support each other.

Judy is an artist too, so she understands the ups and downs that come with this life. And because she’s an artist, I can actually trust her feedback. She’s always been my biggest supporter, even during the lean years when we weren’t sure how we’d make it.

If anyone deserves credit for where I am today, it’s Judy. She’s been there through it all, and I couldn’t have done it without her.

Website: https://jamesrieck.com

Instagram: jamesrieck

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jdrart