Rick Palidwor

After studying sociology my artistic career began as a comedian for CBC Radio. Then I made films and videos for about 20 years. I started painting in 2017 when I starting living beside a school that offered art classes at night. I took a couple of beginner classes to get my bearings and am otherwise self-taught. My desire to paint had sparked once, back in the late 1980’s, but I did not act on it at that time. Now was my chance to try it and that initial spark remained the same - I have a serious dislike of realism, especially for wildlife. It feels like boring photographs. I wanted to portray wildlife in an abstract and primitive manner. It didn’t take long to drift into rendering abstract creatures of all sorts, and sometimes I get abstract without any creatures at all.

I never paint with intention. I just start to apply some colour and go with my whims and when something starts to emerge I zero in and work it up.

I am still playing and discovering new techniques to explore.

My goal is to make something that is beautiful or interesting or funny and sometimes I am lucky and it’s all of the above.

I was raised in the suburbs of Vancouver, British Columbia and have resided in Toronto, Ontario since 1985.

B.A. Sociology and Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, 1979

M.A. Sociology and Political Science, York University, 1987