Comfort Zone Drawing

Rick Midler, is an award-winning artist and creative director based in Brooklyn, NY. He is known for creating cloud-people in quiet reflection within surrealistic cloudscapes. Midler told these stories in his earlier work with ink, oils and printmaking. His latest body of work "The Cloudman Chronicles" is a collection of mixed media pieces that use decorative papers to tell the story of a spiritual journey and a retreat to a simpler time. "Papers and patterns were chosen for their ability to transport me back to my childhood - when entering the floral-wallpapered hallway of my great-grandmother’s home meant transforming an insecure boy into a loved and valued member of a nurtured tribe. This house had soup on the stove and cakes and conversation and hugs at all times. It was also home to my older cousins who were circus-folk, in Vaudeville and on Broadway. Each room’s decor evoked a unique type of spectacle - from sparkly gold and silver materials to soft woven Damask fabrics." Chosen papers are then cut into cloud shapes by hand. The repeated cutting of curved cloud shapes with scissors becomes a meditation. Even the characters within the pieces are represented as curved and semi-amorphic human-shaped clouds to present the concept that we are no different than the world (or cloudscapes) we exist in. Once mixed together, the various patterns create a certain form of camouflage which gives the viewer a feeling of discovery and realization - like trying to sew fragments of memories together, or focusing on the individual trees that make the forest. The stories in each piece are by-products of Rick's daily meditation practice and the use of “automatic drawing” (surrealist automatism) as a tool that bonds awareness, reflection and the subconscious. This results in an acceptance of formerly insecure qualities and provides the platform to re-shape negative thoughts, representing them as positive scenes and visions in the clouds. Just as clouds drift, change shape, condense and evaporate, so do individual definitions of our character and identity. Rick's art is intended to provide comfort and peace as well as the confidence to go forward knowing that not everything can be known.