I am interested in simple blocks of color and form. I am very interested in experimentation. I like a certain quality of simplicity, a type of visual frankness, even though some of my works would seem to contradict that idea.

There is definitely a type of visual and philosophical sensibility that I see as American that is part optimism, part naiveté and a good dash of desire and freedom to explore concepts of newness that I really value. This sensibility often has an element of incongruousness that I find extremely compelling.

Concerns that inform my work are questions about what the mind perceives and processes as real or fact and unreal or non-factual and where exactly is the boundary between the two? It is so interesting how one person’s absurdity is another’s salvation and visa versa. This disparity between what we call rational and what we label irrational makes life troublesome for many, but it is also what makes it so complex and interesting.

WAR SERIES:

Statement

For my parents, surviving through WW2 required conscious and/or unconscious choices. With this work, based on WW2 photographs I am trying to see through their lens of a witness and attempt to understand the how profound the act of individual choice is.

What would it be like as a civilian, sorting through the ruin of one’s city, or being the common soldier, trudging towards an unknown horizon? I wonder how an executioner, a sympathizer, a prisoner, a guard, or citizen feel? How does each person justify the role they play in the human tragedy of war.

These painting are not about right or wrong, but about choices made by individuals . Would I save myself? Would I save another? How would I define my moral boundaries? Would I march with others not knowing really why? Would I think and examine and act for myself?

I believe only by trying to understand the terrors that anyone of us may someday have to choose between, that only then, will we become fully conscious of how completely unreasoned and savagely primitive the concept and reality war is. Then perhaps we will we realize how much power, thorough individual choice, each one of us truly has.

Rita Bard, rita bard.com, contemporary artist, painter, santa fe, new mexico, all works copyright rita bard 2008