“Allies” Rita Chavez By H. Bosch During an eight year period after leaving her native South Dakota, artist Rita Chavez started and ran a heath food store, worked as a bartender and as a buyer for Lippman’s in Eugene. “I put my husband through school,” she recalls, her comments punctuated with bright laughter. “He got an MBA in sculpture at the Unversity of Oregon. A lot of it was survival, a lot being independent for the first time, learning I could do things. And I was tired of being poor. Finally I transferred to Seattle with Lippman’s....” Yet sometime in 1983, “My job got less interesting, less enjoyable. My boss told me I’d have to hate my job if I wanted to succeed at it. I quit.. . .I had always maintained a studio; I just didn’t exhibit.” And suddenly this Art Education graduate of South Dakota State University exploded onto the regional and national art scenes, with some 20 shows in Seattle, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Montana, Colorado and Oklahoma in the last two years. “At first I kind of felt behind; I wanted to make people feel I was serious. Luckily I had a good portfolio when I began. Now it’s drying up. I need to build up a large body of art. I go in phases. For a long time all my work was from dreams and fantasies—very influenced by Jung. My first pieces came out of therapy, focussed on security and insecurity. When I felt more secure in my work, political and social statements evolved. “My work is satyrical. And my titles are important. I want to say as much as I can about social and political things. But I don’t want to turn off people immediately. I use bright colors—children really like my work. I’m actually painting fables ... in the literary sense. “I’ll have a vicious animal with a sad face. I don’t like to see things stereotyped." An intentional humor does not mask the complexity she portrays. “My paintings should make viewers happy; they should get childhood memories back, then feel the undertones. “I think I get my colors from childhood. My mother was Scotch/English/lrish, my father Chicano. Our house was a rage of color. And my parents made things all the time. So I did too. “I did abstract work when I was in college. Then I had a conceptual period, and worked in mixed media. There were several years of abstract landscapes in black and white. And I’ve done a lot of sculpture.. ..” Chavez feel right at home in Seattle, and feels a kinship for what she calls Northwest Funk—“It’s inspiring”—and the work of T. Michael Gardiner, Lynn DiNino and Deborah Walker, among others. Chavez’ work is now moving into three dimensions with a recent series of animal constructions. “I’d love to have a huge warehouse. I'd like to do an entire environment, with sounds, winds, electronics, video— a fantasyland.” She anticipates this current whirlwind of activity will continue for at least another year before she pauses to rest. She’s developing plans for a collaboration with Seattle’s Group Theater Company and another with the Langston Hughes Cultural Center. Her only regrets about the past center around her education. “They taught techniques but not how to make a living with it. Now I know about advertising, promotions, deadlines, merchandising. I feel I’m totally in control of myself.” Chavez does fondly recall one influential teacher—Dr. Josiah Baird. “He taught that to be an artist you had to encompass all of life. That technique was less important than your principles.. . . This is the right time of my life to do art. Only recently have I had both the ideas and the technique to express myself. It just jelled. ...” H. Bosch is an artist from another time zone. His work is available in poster shops everywhere. 28 Clinton St. Quarterly
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