Although formally trained with a MFA in painting, Rickey Jewell Hohimer has used the styles
of Van Gogh and Gaughin to reach for the spontaneity and simplicity of today's folk art.
Hohimer creates figures which are not photos of reality; they are romantically stylized to
encourage straightforward emotional responses both to the colorful images and to the situations
in which they find themselves.
Each of Hohimer's paintings lays out a basic story line to which viewers add their own details.
"I want the viewer to become personally involved. My paintings offer a change from those which
encourage extensive intellectualizing about what the artist is trying to convey. I want viewers
to smile -- to enjoy the whimsical nature of what they are experiencing -- to feel it, not to
analyze it!"
