“The way gives birth to one, one to two, two to three, and three gives birth
to the ten thousand things.” Lao Tzu

The creation of these drawings is a meditative process, though not in the sense of meditating upon the art, but of enabling one's mind and body to move unrestricted through it. This allows for the drawing to compose itself, using me as just another tool of its conception. The method of their creation speaks to a dialogue with the ideas of entropy and chaos theory, and with the correlation of the micro and macro worlds; how things grow and are formed originally from a simple beginning to infinite complexity and how those things are made up of so much more than that which we perceive.
My art stems from countless hours spent staring at the serpentine cornfields of Ohio as a child, contemplating the wild "empty" desserts of New Mexico later, as a young adult, and better still, traveling mile upon mile cross-country on beat-up motorcycles through the varied American landscape. I suppose the initial thought was always the vastness before me and my place within it, and how to convey that feeling through lines and marks of ink, a task that started out literal and very quickly morphed into the ephemeral, which is fitting considering my love of comic books and my fascination with process art. The spirit of my art is rooted in the conceptual and the execution is rooted in Illustration, and while these disciplines are seemingly incongruous, It is their dichotomy that underlies much of my work.
The study of Shaolin Kungfu with it’s emphasis on harmonizing internal and external energies is a physical manifestation of these themes, and has helped me to further along my art by giving me the mental and physical control to literally illustrate the ideas, in particular through my larger works. In executing these drawings I employ sumi ink and a very fine tipped calligraphy brush in a hatching technique. As the hair thin lines of ink amass, inconsistencies of spacing and line weight create amorphous patterns in the forming grey, eventually fusing itself into a composition. Drawing a steady line with a fine tipped brush across a five foot stretch requires control of body and breath, and the physical and mental states required are well represented in the final outcome. The result of the process at times produces a drawing, when viewed as a whole, conveys a visceral, expressive motion and at other times, conveys a sense of calm languor, both of which run counter to the meticulous control and focused concentration required for each individual mark. When engaged in a drawing, I often feel as if I am distilling all my thoughts and the nuances of my body’s movements to the single hair tip of the brush, as if the resulting line was a direct record of me, and yet, at other times the act of drawing is more akin to mindless doodling, letting the brush go where it will.
Ultimately, my drawings are black ink on paper, one line after another, adding up to a deep unknown grey; the vastness before me and my place within it. While these are the thoughts I’ve had while drawing, I can’t always say wether the idea begot the drawing or the drawing lead me to the thought, and with that in mind, I invite you to join me, as the act of drawing is not as far off from the act of viewing as you might think. Let your mind wander, any conclusions you draw are just as valid as mine.

Richie Vicencio (b. 1976)is a Filipino American artist who lives and works in Beacon, New York. He studied in the Studio Arts program of New York University and in the Illustration department of Columbus College of Art and Design.

After working most of his life as a storyboard artist, Richie has resumed focus on a more abstract series of drawings originally started years back. He is slowly, surely, and happily finding his way back to a more ephemeral modality of drawing.