1804 Inn Lane
Arden, DE 19810

302-475-7852
rickrothrock@yahoo.com
www.rickrothrock.com

Artist Statement

Stone has been the primary material featured in my work for decades.  I use various stones in my palette for color, texture, and aesthetic effect.  The artwork contrasts the natural surface and structure of stone with its’ inner and invisible beauty. The abstraction in these works reveals the physical and visual phenomena that exist in nature rather than represent fauna and flora. The fact that frozen fluid motion appears as wind in a sail or that light can be captured in crystals of matter that appear to be opaque, reveals something fundamental about the invisible forces of nature that effect us all. I have dedicated much of my work to illustrating and incorporating these invisible forces into my sculpture. Many of the artworks are monolithic yet have compositions relying on multiple relationships of material, form, color, texture, balance and movement. My art encompasses studio work and public environmental installations. Through public works I seek to energize a place by evoking something essential in its’ nature by considering the unseen forces of the seasons and providing a platform for human interaction as part of the subject matter. With its vocabulary of geometry and composition, my artwork is intended to be a poetic description of the physical realm of nature and our connection to it. It represents the ephemeral peace and balance that is a predominant feature of the natural universe that surrounds us.

I was trained as an educator, a craftsman and an artist and hold a B.S. degree in education and a M.F.A. in Fine Arts - Sculpture. As an advocate for the arts, I initiated the establishment of the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in 1978. As a founding member of the international exhibition group SYNE, I have exhibited in Sweden, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and the USA. I have been an invited artist to several sculpture symposiums and my international work as a sculptor has taken me to Italy and Germany on several occasions and to China as an official Delaware Ambassador of the Arts. In 2009 I received the Christi Award for Outstanding Achievement as an Artist. I was awarded the Masters Fellowship Grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts in 2011.