Ri.S.K.

So I finally changed the name of my blogging profile over to RiSK (technically, I changed it to Ri.S.K., but I am too lazy to actually type that all the time).

Why the name change, you ask? Well, as all things change, so does my artist signature. As I'm working on developing a visual identity for myself, I figured part of that is an identity shift as a whole. Nothing too drastic, besides making the conscious decision to devote myself to my crafts. I've realized that to make it doing what I love, I really have to do what I love. While that sounds easy, in reality I've spent a lot of time doing stuff and not really creating. Not enough time has been spent drawing, and looking up reference material, and practicing constantly. So much of my life has been comfortable, staying inside my little bubble of natural talent, doing things that I am naturally good at. Now as egotistical as this sounds, I find it to be true. I do most things decently without really trying, and as soon as it gets hard, I usually give up and move on to something else. I've lived my whole life this way, and no more. I'm sick of being mediocre at everything and really good at nothing, so it's time to really risk something and go for the dream.

And that goes back 20ish years to when I really, really, really wanted to just draw for a living. Back when I was drawing on the walls with washable marker, on recycled printer paper with crayons, or on my shoes with puff paint, I wanted to be an artist. Now, after facing the reality of life and going through the misdirection of my generation, flirting with chemistry, biology, environmental science, psychology, and acting, I know what I want to do. I want to draw for a living. Don't get me wrong, I still like all of the above, and use those tools in my art (and I'm never going to really give up on acting), but they're not my focus anymore. I don't think I've ever been this focused before, and now I want to finally let art breathe in my every cell. Now, I paint on walls with spraypaint, on recycled sketchbooks and copy paper with graphite and prismacolors, and on shoes and clothing with acrylics and fabric paint, and I love every minute.

So back to the name. My full name is Rick Susumu Kitagawa. The Japanese part is loosely translated as "going forward to the North river." I've been leaving out the Susumu part for too long (mainly cuz growing up I thought it was a silly sounding name), leaving out the going forward part. But I've reclaimed that middle part, and wanted to somehow keep it yet keep the name short. So Ri.S.K. is basically an abbreviation of my full name. Ri(ck) S(usumu) K(itagawa). But it also stands for the internal change within me. I want to be a great artist who can change lives through his art. I'm not sure how to do that yet, but I know what I want to do, and I'm not going to let anyone stop me.

-RiSK 11.27.2007