APP: What is the significance of flowers in your work?
JR: My mom was a florist, growing up in Hawaii. She made everything beautiful, so that was always around me, and my love of flowers came from that. In college all I painted was flowers, and hated painting figures. As a senior I took it on as a challenge, and painted figures that whole year. Now I paint figures with flowers, but I am starting to mask them more. I try to leave some mystery, and people viewing my work tell me that they can project whatever they're feeling to the work.
APP: We see a lot of murals of yours around town. Can you tell us how you got involved in that?
JR: I started about 5 or 6 years ago with Forward Warrior, which is a 2 day event in Cabbagetown. We paint a section of a wall on Wylie, (I paint over the same space every year,) and whatever you put up there, you finish in two days. It's fun because artists usually work alone, and we all get to have a big catch up moment. It's a nice weekend event for the neighborhood, so everyone comes out to watch the process, and it becomes an ever changing canvas for the neighborhood.
