Rick Thew III

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1959 no.3 by Thew III

Flex installed by Thew

II and III by Thew

 

In my recent work, I use found objects that have been left behind by past generations to create sculptures and painting surfaces that directly point to my fascination with family and tradition. These items, sculptures and more directly the paintings I have done, speak to my close ties with my family and how important this connection is in my life.

              A family should be something that you can gather strength from and give strength too. My family is a good example of this. The two sides of my family, weather it be the Thew or the Jones side, have a long history and tradition of love and strength that abides even now. I have always felt strongly, and very lucky, about having such a close family.  This has become more apparent everyday; especially in a day and age when more and more families lose sight of what is really important (each other) and end up broken for one reason or another.

This series has also become an endeavor into taking once sought-after, now unwanted, objects and making them desirable again through manipulation and abstraction. This passion for discarded yet beautiful objects and materials has come directly from my family and upbringing.  My first approach, and first love, is sculpture. One material I use in this series are old weathered Studebakers that are beyond repair, to create interesting designs.  Studebakers have come to reference my family and more specifically my father because he and I have spent a lot of time in and around these vehicles. This, in turn, has come to involve my whole family, weather that means helping find them, storing them or something in-between.

This reclamation of objects brings me to my second approach. In this series of paintings I use deteriorated metal (in the form of old evaporated milk cans or twisted scrap metal) as the surfaces for my paintings. The paintings are of family members, events, and other important aspects of my life. The objects and the paintings are made to look old so that they reference the notion of history and tradition. The series as a whole has a rural feel that points to my upbringing in North-Eastern Oregon.

I find beauty in objects and material where others over look it. The two aspects of this series do that while coming together to show the importance of family, history, tradition, form and design.