Richard Shipps

Chicago artist Richard Shipps explores the ambiguity of form, shape, tone and movement through drawings, sculpture, mobiles and cut paper. His work examines the dynamic tensions between light and shadow and the interplay of negative and positive form. His focus is on the push and pull -- juxtaposition and synergy of image. Since 2000, when Richard left the corporate art world to re-focus on his personal art, he has honed and clarified this vision. His goal has always been to stretch himself beyond what is readily seen and understood, and to study form in its purest sense. The last three years have been an odyssey as a full-time artist in Chicago. This follows a lifetime creating art, design, motion picture animation, video and multi-image presentations for corporations around the world. Richard's 35-year career as a creative force and executive producer was characterized by cutting-edge visual communication. He was president of DD&B Studios, a leading producer of large screen presentations for 20 years. As an early adopter of emerging presentation technology, he incorporated animation with multiple projection sources including slides, motion picture, video and various theatrical techniques. He ran the beta-test versions of early computer equipment "through their paces" and did things visually that had never been done before. It was in keeping with this blazing search for newness, creativity and extraordinary methods that his work garnered over 40 awards and was recognized worldwide for creative and technical advancements in the field. He is a native of Michigan. He was born in Midland, Michigan and studied at Albion College, Detroit College for Creative Studies and Wayne State University. His first gallery shows were in the Detroit area in the late 1960s. His mobiles have been sold in museum stores across the country for many years, and he has exhibited extensively in Chicago in recent years.

Artist Statement

My work looks at shadow as light, light as shadow, revealing imagery in both positive and negative space in a framework of changing references. The shapes and their visual rhythms are informed by shape-memories and distant emotions -- defined by adjacent counter-forms -- creating a constant meditative conversion of rhythmic balance.