Tell me about yourself, why did you choose to explore art?

I am Richard Gessert, 17, and I am a senior in high school. Initially as a child, I explored art for pure personal enjoyment, to be happy. Now, it’s as if I do the same thing unconsciously but with an addition: I have my self-awareness and environment to incorporate with the work.

What do you like best about being an artist?

One of the best things about artist is that they can exhibit freedom. In a piece of work, the boundaries of social norms and expectations are broken. And the fast-paced society around you doesn’t directly affect the work. It’s creative freedom.

What are your goals for yourself as an artist?

I want to be a dynamic impact on someone, if not my environment. If my work is not affecting someone, whether emotionally, aesthetically, or conceptually, than it doesn’t have the added strength I strive for.

Do you want to pursue art as a career?

Yes. I am currently a dual-enrolled high school student (Running Start program), so that I may have my Associate of Arts concurrent with my high school diploma upon graduation. It will allow me to have that start towards an art career.

What do you want to say in your artwork?

I ultimately strive for my artwork to be an effect, and one way that can happen is through discussion. If a work can be the discussion between people, than it has an impact. When a work is indifferent, it’s not a utilized volume of space.

Is your work based on your own interest?

To an extent, yes. I can usually begin with an interest in a topic or subject, explore it, and make something out of it. If I didn’t have pure inquisition about the world around me in conjunction with art, the work would be depthless.

Do you incorporate reflection in your process? If so, do you use a journal or sketchbook daily?

Yes, there is a reflecting process in what I do. I also have several sketchbooks. Despite the hectic schedules that can occur, I push to at least get the pencil to the paper. Sketching and writing get you thinking and creating; it keeps me busy.

What are you currently working on?

Day to day, I notice the effect one idea can have on another. More specifically, I am in awe at how societies can do this on a larger scale. Currently, I am exploring themes such as orientalism and how that “East meets West” can be displayed, relative to individuals.

What kind of tools and materials do you use? Why?

I try to exhibit breadth and variety in my work. This ranges from pencils and utensils to a mouse on a computer to my hands, ultimately. I am more experienced with pencils and utensils, but that is not something that prevents me from experimenting with any other medium.

What is your favorite Prismacolor product? Why?

I’ve used Prismacolor products for a while now, but realizing that it was Prismacolor was a different experience. Knowing what Prismacolor embodied and provided in its products is what made me continue to use the materials. Today, I have a full range box of a 48 set Prismacolor Scholar colored pencils, and that is the Prismacolor material I use the most frequently and consistently. I find that the balance in hardness and softness of the pigment provides the texture and rich color I look to work with.

How do you incorporate colored pencils into mixed media?

Colored pencils mostly allow for precise detail and layering in artwork, and so I incorporate that with broad coverage other media like pastels, paint, and computer programs can provide. For instance, I may have a computer-made background in a piece, but the foreground can be drawn with colored pencils, providing the contrast in texture and technique but also staying true to what mixed media can encompass.

Do you incorporate Prismacolor into digital technology projects?

I often find myself sketching out any idea I may have for a digital project, and sometimes, that includes using products Prismacolor can provide to create a concept sketch. In addition to incorporating it with my process, I also take advantage of my digital work and handwork for mixed media projects (please see previous question).

Who is your favorite artist? Why?

I really enjoy Gustav Klimt’s work. Not only does his work conceptually and emotionally evoke something of the viewer, Klimt really does aesthetically lure his viewers with materials like gold leaf in addition to his paintwork. What really made me look into Klimt, though, was the aspect of his paintings that make it seem like a mixed media or pencil piece of work. For example, looking at Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, I am tempted to think the work is graphite or pastel in addition to collage, but it is evidently oil paint, silver, and gold on canvas. That in itself is something that effects me as an artist.

What in daily life inspires you?

The interactions I have with the peoples in my environment affects my psyche, and as a result, affects my work. More significantly, the interactions that groups of people have between one another are what spark my interest. One way this can happen is when cultures “collide” or “contaminate” each other. Living in America, I witness and am apart of this all the time, and it’s a privilege.

Do you listen to music when you are in the creative process? Who?

Music can really get people to feel a certain way, and yes, I listen to my own share of music when I create. Some examples include Empire of the Sun, Boléro, and Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS). Like my media, I listen to a variety of sounds to get me into what I make.

What do you feel when you get into a creative flow?

It’s almost indescribable when I am in a creative process. I feel at peace but also excited to communicate what I have to say in something other than words. It’s the strangest and most unique feeling at the same time.

What is your mantra?

I am intrigued by words that don’t have an exact meaning in English. For example, I like the Vietnamese word--I am Vietnamese--for “suffering” (as in “Life is suffering”). The Vietnamese term is khổ and the equivalent of the dukkha (from Sanskrit). It encompasses feelings of suffering, pain, discontent, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, anguish, stress, and frustration. It isn’t taught, however, to be something completely pessimistic. That’s what drives me, and the fact that it involves my ethnic background in relation to my life in an English-based society incorporates what my artwork stands for, i.e., orientalism. Life is khổ.

What is the purpose of art for you?

I not only try to have an ultimate happiness in the process of making art, but I also try to affect the people around me. Whether I affect the person or peoples emotionally, conceptually, or aesthetically, that would be depended upon them, but if I have somehow provided a voice to an ear, I am happy.

Does critique help you grow and push the work forward?

Surely, critique helps my work to grow. Without discussing my work with people, I wouldn't be able to get the type of feedback that I do when I talk to art instructors or fellow artists. In my studies, I analyzed; I critiqued; and I created. As artists, we analyze; we critique; and we create.

What technique would you like to share?

Something I've found to be a unique skill is the ability to be aware of the layers in a piece of artwork. Not only are the visual layers and blending an important part of communicating the piece's message but also being aware of the actual layers of paint or color pencil used in the work. In addition to that, being conscious of the pressures used is key, and that involves the quickness of the stroke. Faster strokes can lay light; slow strokes can be deep and pressured hard, and vice versa. I once read that Leonardo da Vinci used extremely thin layers of paint in his Mona Lisa, and he did so through a pain-staking process. So isn't necessarily a technique that is easily identifiable once it's executed, but it has its rewards.

Is there anything you would like to add?

Art is forever changing, and so are those who create it. With ideas like cultural expansion, e.g., orientalism; the differences between analyzed and analyze; critiqued and critique; and created and create, it's the comparisons that matter. That we make comparisons from within the art-making and art-appreciating processes is what can make the difference.