Today we’d like to introduce you to Rizaldy Celi Jr..
Rizaldy, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I used to draw things when I was a kid. People, landscapes, characters. All kinds of things. I think it was my first love. Illustrating I mean. I remember it mostly as a combatant to boredom at first, but I know I enjoyed it fully over time. I drew all the way up until high school and stopped when I began abusing drugs and became addicted to crystal meth. It wasn’t very long before I was sober again, but I could no longer illustrate from memory. My ideas never left me though, and that’s when I found a similar satisfaction taking photos with disposable cameras.
It wasn’t, until many years later that I started to explore what a camera can do and what kind of images you can achieve from them. Today, I’ve come to appreciate many genres of photography, but find myself most interested in erotic images.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I moved to LA from the San Francisco Bay Area with goals to make films and still images with interesting concepts behind them. Where I’m from, it didn’t feel like my ideas fit in. It’s a bit better in Los Angeles.
I know my work needs improvement. But, that’s craft I guess. I feel my ideas are peaking and I’ve run out of means at this point, in terms of subject and budget. I guess you can say my work isn’t “captured”. At least the work that I am proud of. I don’t like to bring a camera with me everywhere I go like most picture fanatics. And to be honest, I don’t know how much I love the activity of it. But it helps me create the images I can no longer illustrate.
My work is about three things: sex, love, and heart break. Maybe it’s just about my past and my observations. It is for me at least. I’d really like to hear what my work is to other people.
In your view, what is the biggest issue artists have to deal with?
The biggest challenge for artists today is the same that it has always been: honesty. I believe it is an artist’s job to provoke thought in others, and I think it’s their responsibility to do that truthfully, to uphold what artists do.
I actually have a lot to say about that topic, but I don’t have to do that now. I’ll just say that it is extremely hard to be honest with the amount of information we intake these days. How can you be completely original? I believe it can be done, and should be reached for, by all artists.
“Artists.”
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I have a portfolio online at http://www.rizaldy.com where I keep the work that I feel is most relevant to my current style and vision.
I also have an Instagram account where I post pretty frequently. http://www.instagram.com/rizaldy.jr/ I sell originals and prints at http://www.saatchiart.com/rizaldy. But fuck all that, I’d really feel supported if people were to come see my work at a show.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rizaldy.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/rizaldy.jr
Image Credit:
Subjects: Jeana Turner, Abby Moore, Pamela Lee, Lyena Kang, Angel Lin
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