Rick Potts

Martel Window Project: David Shull (viewable 24/7)

In our Martel Gallery, Richard Telles presents an installation of recent paintings by Rick Potts. Potts mines the visual language located somewhere between Bob Ross, Dr. Seuss, and Hieronymus Bosch. His other influences are from 1950-60s sci-fi and monster films, but it’s the landscape paintings of Bob Ross, made famous from his long-running PBS instructional painting show The Joy of Painting (1983- 1994), that remain his touchstone of technique. He embraces Ross’ mantra of ‘painting your own world’ to the point of excess, imagining grotesqueries that unspool from Disney’s ‘carousel of progress’— fantastical creatures that thrive under cotton ball cloudy skies and amongst glandular mountains. These beings defy easy categorization, but are not limited to: earthworm-nosed dryads; wolf-dragons with head gear; electric-tongued crows of the arctic; and walking, weaponized trees. Potts can identify the genesis of their parts, dredged from art history, art made in his youth, or from the hinterlands of Americana, but their ultimate meanings remain open to interpretation.

Rick Potts co-founded the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) in 1973, with his brother Joe Potts, Chip Chapman, and Tom Recchion. Not including LAFMS’s many other related musical projects, it has since expanded to over a dozen members. Potts has recently exhibited his paintings and other art works at Amy Greenspon, New York and with The Box, Los Angeles. Potts lives and works in Los Angeles.