Statement: I like mingling art and design, natural and artificial materiality, atmosphere and hard edge. The works here are about uniting graphic design and painting processes. While working at the Widener Memorial Room at Harvard, I made these quiet yet radiant drawings. Sitting at a leather-bound desk surrounded by tall, English oak-paneled walls adorned with Corinthian capitals, I penciled these works. I almost felt like an anachronism, plotting abstractly within the antique luxury of Widener's rare book collection.

Think of: candy, bubbles, vents, speaker holes, bouquets, puddles, jewels, registration marks, MTV, fireworks, disco lights, cosmic order, psychological leaks - even The Jetsons.

My experience with Photoshop has emerged in these drawings, where the digital language of artificial glow, gradient, and layer swirls in organic formations, in optical play. But I still like touch. I am inspired by these drawings - as deliberate as they may seem, they have sprung from a very spontaneous place in the history of my work. I have tried to make each one different, a reaction to each other, while they share a common vocabulary of form.

Contact the Artist:

John Ruggieri PT '88 | johnruggieri@amearts.org