Rodger Schultz is a Professional Fine Artist from Washington DC invested in the exploration of the Self by means of the Artistic Process. "There is only one Creative Process and it keeps duplicating itself." This Process, he says, is a grand mirror in which everything you see is your Self. He calls Painting a visual form of math, revealing Art as "the Science of exploring the Inner", and Science as the "Art of exploring the Outer. Two sides of the same coin."
In 2010, after 18 years of Painting, Sculpting, and a long decade as a Professional Visual Designer, a rare spiritual event caused RAS. to abandon his entire knowledge base and to begin his studies anew -- fresh, from scratch, with a single red dot. He has since, slowly and methodically re-introduced Knowledge one deliberate and scientific step at a time into his work -- adding, removing, studying, honing, creating and destroying.
"It's been a slow process. My first flowers had straight stems, and I did three versions of them before realizing that I had to write the code for the stems to bend. I had to give them permission to bend."
"Painting at its core is pure Alchemy, and a high form of it. The universe can be reduced to its core by the blank canvas alone. You don't even have to put anything on it." Art reveals the whole, and it is the inward looking that creates the outward expression."
His processes are intriguing and exciting to watch unfold for his dedicated and ever-growing fan base, whom he regularly includes in the Creation Process via social media. The movements from extreme simplicity to expanding complexities do not occur in a straight line however. Rodger's work is a spiral of reoccurring subject, merging technique, style and converging thought-form. "The only thing fixed is my Self."
His Landscapes are rooted in Post-Impressionism. His Portraits are illustrative modified with various classical techniques. His figures are mostly formed from memory and his expressions are industrial explorations of simplicity. In 2015, he merged them all -- and this merging will ultimately unfold for the rest of his life.
Rodger's unique and carefully crafted Visual Language include a dual-layering process that provides for arrays of visual combinations without end. "It's limitless. The goal is to paint with enough knowledge to make the paint do what you want, and with enough wisdom not to know anything at all. 'I don't know' is heaven, and 'I know' is hell.' I like to paint from heaven."
"The Science of it all comes in the Seeing... not the mark-making itself. The Painting is actually just the slow removal of the Artist. You start seeing that the Painter and the Painting are occurring at the same time, simultaneously manifesting, and then they merge. And then they disappear. When you get the audience to disappear with them, the job is complete."
I Love You.
Fuck You.
It explains itself in the first minutes -- a two-part, three year side project of Rodger finding the story of RAS. on camera. Finding the Story is the Story.
Intended as an informal podcast curated into the shape of a Painting, Rodger finds the Greatest Thought possible to the Mind by the first hour and goes to show how it affects his work combining Art, Science, Spirituality and Ancient Wisdom.
Part 1 is more about the Artist and Part 2 is about the Art. Part 1 is what goes into the Art, Part 2 is how it comes out.
Warning: Adult language early, for potency.
It is purposeful and non-gratuitous.
