Megan Rice
Artist Statement

I was born in Mexico City in 1951, to a jewish mother and irish father. When I was two years old, my parents and my uncle Dan Rice attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina. I recognize that the vitality of their experience at that school translated into a kind of personal challenge for me to somehow live up to it’s commitment to the arts.

When I was five years old, my family moved to rural Topanga Canyon. Goats, chickens, horses, organic gardens, barefoot beatniks, penniless painters and craftsmen, and the furious optimism of the early sixties nourished me. My father designed and built our home, made furniture, fought the “collective”, and became famous for his masonry stone work. My mother was a weaver, a dancer, and later in life became a poet. My beloved siblings and I witnessed the eternal financial sacrifices that so often attend the creative life style. We didn’t have presentable clothing, but we did have art supplies. When I was eight years old, uncle Dan, a member of the New York School of abstract expressionism, took me to an art museum. He stood before one painting for such a long time, as if it were a sacred thing. If there was a spiritual proclivity in my family, it manifested in creativity and self expression.

In terms of education, art school in London provided me with a solid foundation in drawing, and ceramic sculpture. Mills College and Santa Monica College of Design,Art, and Architecture significantly furthered my path in the visual arts. Jungian analysis and the study of dreams have certainly informed my work. Artists who have notably influenced me are Auguste Rodin, Niki de Saint Phalle, Arnold Schifrin, and Michele Cassou. Every art teacher I’ve ever worked with has moved me a little closer to my own voice, as well as instructed my identity as a teacher.

The nature of my work is figurative, illustrative, iconic, and ever changing. I work in both two and three dimensional formats. While the materials may be pencil, clay, paper, words, or paint, my own life has proven to be the essential “medium”. The discovery is that when you explore the self, you draw upon a surprising universality. My imagery usually reflects deeply personal experiences, which often translate on a feeling level to societal or collective issues. Humor and suffering, naiveté, and the feminine voice all find their way into my art work.

In defining my chosen art form, I won’t say I cleave to one medium or discipline. What I am dedicated to is expressiveness of my human experience, uniquely described. Yes color, yes beauty and skill. But my aesthetic interest always circles an emotional hot spot. My favorite way to begin any piece is with the sense of starting blind, not knowing, The pencil is searching for something. The clay is taking an unexpected shape. Eventually, ideas surface, reflecting conscious or unconscious concerns. The rigors of raising children, the dynamic struggle of marriage, the brush with colon cancer, memories of childhood, etc. I try not to compromise this way of working. Personal experience is always food enough to nourish another body of work!