by Chet Griffith
Friends should not let friends… interview them.
Chet: O.k. question number one: What is your favorite color?
Riki: Are you serious?
C: Yeah!
R: That’s really it?
C: Yeah, that’s it. You see, I’m setting the bar low, so that there is nowhere else to go but up.
R: I’m gonna go with red.
After that revelatory, earth-shattering beginning I figured it was time to get down to business.
C: Your chosen medium is stained glass. Tell me how you happened upon that particular medium.
R: This is really weird to have this conversation with you.
C: I know.
R: I don’t really feel like elaborating when I’m talking to you.
C: You don’t really have to, but everyone is going to think you’re a real **** if you don’t elaborate.
R: They’re already going to think that.
C: This is going to go famously then.
After a lot of laughter and several more minutes of chatter that is unfit for print, we managed to re-focus.
C: Other than coffee slinging at Common Grounds, can you tell me about your other employer?
C: Is it difficult to work on your own art when you’ve been working with glass all day as your job?
R: I love my job very much but yes, it is difficult to come home after building windows for 8 hours and then try to build another .
C: I know you just had the opportunity to work on a Tiffany window, what is that like?
R: It’s so hard, but it’s also very rewarding. Taking apart and reassembling a Tiffany window gives me the opportunity to learn how and why things were done there. They are lessons I hope to use in my own work.
C: O.k. lets try this again, how did you discover stained glass?
R: My Cousin Ankeen Mcguire is a stained glass artist. I thought it was a really a unique material so I asked her to show me what it was all about. I was hooked! I went out 2 days later and started buying supplies, and as time went on I got more serious about it. Eventually I answered an ad in the paper for a stained glass artist, got an interview, and was then hired based on my portfolio.
C: What types of things inspire you, and are they always transferable to glass?
R: Honestly, the things that inspire me the most are politics and religion, and I do have a hard time representing those ideas with glass. Lucky for me I’m really into mathematics, which is much easier to work with.
C: You currently have a piece hanging at ArtWorks called “Dominique.” Can you tell me about that one?
R: That’s my favorite. I think she’s beautiful. She is based on a character in the book The Fountainhead by
Ayn Rand. I was fascinated by the character and thought it only right to pay homage. I really enjoyed the “perfection or nothing” attitude.
C: So you’re a bit of an Objectivist?
R: Yeah you could say that.
C: It’s interesting that you choose to take on these huge abstract ideas and then decide to express yourself in a very difficult medium that is widely considered to be antiquated.
R: I don’t think it’s antiquated at all, you can do a lot of cool new stuff with it. It is definitely limiting but I think that makes it more fun for me. I really don’t like for things to be easy most of the time.
C: So you do it to struggle?
R:Yeah that’s important.
Riki Tagliapietra you have been “Exposed”.
You can contact Riki through his myspace page.
Chet Griffith is a local artist and the owner of Art-Works in Kenosha
8 comments ↓
Riki’s work is full of energy and light. I have enjoyed watching him create on Friday Art Night and seeing his work in the gallery. The lead surrounding each piece does more than hold the glass together…they add a lyrical element and an electricity which combines the work into a beautiful and constantly changing experience.
OPPS!
Please forgive my manners, Chet.
I forgot to tell you I enjoyed your interview.
Keep it up. It gets easier.
Joe
Thanks to both Rebecca & Joe for commenting! The original transcribed interview is 5 or 6 pages long and is hysterical. It’s here in the event that anyone wants to read it. If so, please bring 2 forms of I.D. and a note from your mother saying thats it’s o.k!
I have a piece of Riki’s work at my house. My kitchen is filled with color on sunny days! Mine is the middle work of art on the top of this page. Keep up the great work Riki!
WOW! Your art flows and merges,showing drama and peace! Love it!
I really enjoy all of your work it was wonderful to be able to watch you work on Dominique.
Congratulations, Riki. We love hearing about your work. Rose Marie and Bill
I was aware from the first remarks exchange that Riki was the interviewed artist in that his personality and mine are similar and I take that as a compliment to me. I encourage his artistic career and what ever becomes of it. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
Riki takes the mystery out of artistic motivation for me. This coming from a guy who could barely draw his salary.
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