Richard Pence MFA Thesis Exhibition: Tricky Ricky
April 03 – April 12, 2025.
Opening Reception April 4th 6pm
Kicking off my travels back to the states started with a quick overnight in Maryland with my family – this was essential in order to book the cheaper round trip flight back to germany since I would be leaving from maryland back to Germany.
This time back to the states was a little hard to juggle. The first time back I had spent about a month road tripping from Maryland, New Mexico, Florida then back up to Maryland. It was long, very stressful, filled with the most traumatic car issues I have ever experienced. That’s saying a lot because I had lived and traveled in two very very old RV’s and didn’t face as many challenges as I did with this truck. Anywho, long story short – this time around I knew I wasn’t driving across the country again and would be hopping on flights to each of my destinations. This trip was significantly shorter - probably by two weeks and I was throwing in one more stop than the last go around. As you can see, a lot of logistics, a lot of planning and a lot of very important life events that I was hoping to witness and to be a part of.
I’m typically very conscious of my time and not jam packing so much into a single trip, but when it comes to traveling back to the states I feel like I have to. I want to go to as many places I can, seeing as many people as I can regardless if it burns me out. I just hate feeling like I may be wasting precious time with them knowing I am only there for a limited time. I’m sure many people can relate – especially those who live great distances from their loved ones.
The itinerary for this trip included a stop in Mesa, AZ where my friends Richard and Elizabeth have been living for the last three years as Richard completes his MFA at ASU. We’ve been friends for over 10 years. All three of us actually went to the same community college and met through the photography program there. Richard and I both worked in the photo lab as lab monitors and I know for a fact it was during this time that I knew art would be a priority in my life – I just didn’t know how much my love for art would evolve. However, it did start with photography and at times when I think about how I became introduced to the art world I always think about how important it was to me at that time in my life. I went away from the medium for a while but am happy to report I’ve been picking up my camera(s) a lot more these days and have felt so inspired to just take more pictures in general. Anywho, back to Richard…
More on Film
Grant Street Studio Tour
Grant Street Studio Tour
The last time I was in Arizona was in the middle of the summer a few years ago and it was miserable, over 100 degrees all day…and all night. This time I went during a different season, earlier in the year during a time they just happened to be having a cold front. Double win! We started out the trip with a studio tour – probably my favorite thing to do when visiting artist friends. Getting to see the facilities they have in their programs, their personal studio spaces, etc, etc. I got to see so much work from not only Richard, but his cohort and other students in the program. Grant Studios is such a cool, funky space. I’m still thinking about the tiled orange shower that is there, it was so random, so unexpected but so cool. Will definitely be adding that to inspo for my future house. Once the tours were done we got straight to work on finishing a few tasks before we could start installing.
Looking back, it was so fun to be able to help Richard get his thesis show installed (regardless of the jet lag, hangriness and stress.) Throughout my life I’ve always known that Richard was extremely detail oriented but it took helping with this install to really appreciate how much care he puts into his work and his craftsmanship is *chefs kiss.* He’s always been so diligent about making things exactly how he envisioned them, not cutting corners or sacrificing original ideas and I think this show was such a beautiful example of all of that. I was enamored by all the cameras and developing tables he made, the creative use of projections and light, the scale of the works and grasping how he was able to create all these large scale murals in a practical and efficient way. One of the best parts was during opening night, visitors were able to develop their own “pre-exposed” darkroom prints that would find their place on the largest mural in the space. It was such a unique experience to witness and help facilitate, plus it was really neat seeing Richard in his element like that, geeking over all the analogue techniques he incorporated throughout the show as well. It was a really beautiful show and I feel very lucky that I got to be a part of it. So if you’re reading this Richard, thanks! I’ve always known you were going to do amazing things, especially in the field of photography and I know this is just the beginning! I’m so grateful photography brought us together.
