"Empty Rhetoric" Painting

Randall's art tells stories about his artistic philosophy and his views on culture. His art expresses life as a process of ever increasing learning and growth about himself and the world around him. His art is usually ambiguous and doesn't always have a clear contextual message. He believes that while the artist may express an emotion or idea the viewer only finds meaning through her or his experiences. The artists creates, the viewer sees. Randall uses a balance of intentionality and chance in which he expresses life's ambiguities and contradictions. He believes that the more a person tries to codify, define, hold or control a thing the less it can be codified, defined, held or controlled. Randall is self-taught and began art at the age of 40 as a watercolorist. He found the mixing of water and pigment astounding and exhilarating as it exploded and blended in unique ways. In his early 50's he was unable to work because of a debilitating disease. After surgery and a cure he began painting again, but discovered watercolors didn't express his motivation to live with an intensity which was lacking before the surgery. After some exploration he discovered mixed media and artist's books. He recently began painting watercolors again finding a new level of beauty in the blending of colors. Randall explores art using three major ideas: abstraction, personal observations, and societal observations. These themes are expressed using unique colors, materials, language, or in the use of space, on a page or in three dimensions. Recent watercolors are based on the interactions of form, color and space. His major focus is on color. Watercolors are a wonderful vehicle for chance encounters of color and form. The more water one adds the greater the odds are of unintended consequences. Rarely mixing paint before applying it to the paper, Randall allows the pigments to blend on the paper. He applies many layers to the painting to create depth and a fantastical array of hues. His mixed media generally explores various aspects of society using collage and found objects, especially dolls, bones and fabrics to describe aging, sexism, materialism, and how bodies are used as objects. Other times Randall just explores interesting forms and contemplates new contextual ideas. His three dimensional mixed media pieces are sculptures in their own right using cardboard as a base material.