2003's Work

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Art from the Ruins

I have always been drawn to ruins with their textures and patterns of long use and decay. And the mysteries: who were the people and why did they leave? What were their stories? Sadly I watch many of our old structures on the plains slowly weather down, seldom given a second glance by tunnel-vision travelers and necessity-harried citizenry.

Land use and social structure on the southern High Plains have been and continue to be in a state of flux. In a wide-open country with a sometimes-unforgiving climate, there is a danger in rushing from one discard pile of change to the next. Like our tunnel-vision traveler we are only caught up in the going, moving so fast we do not bring our stories and our culture with us. And by then, we are all too ready to believe that our land has no esthetic value, and our ruins can be forgotten.

Katherine Anne Porter said, “Art is what we find when the ruins are cleared away.” I would say art is what we have when we allow ourselves to look into the ruins. Then we have an art that gives us a sense of where we have come from and thereby helps us shape a vision of where we are going.

This need for a personal and cultural sense of place has led me to create my own style of regionally-inspired furniture--reliquaries of sorts--using castoff lumber and hardware from the ruins. Like three-dimensional photo albums, the furniture pieces have become a way of telling some of the seldom-heard stories of just plain living on the Texas Panhandle.

Twenty-five years of developing my art while living on the High Plains had brought me to the point where I could see the possibility and need to assemble a grouping of story pieces that emanated from a central idea or place. The desire to further explore the concept of the regional reliquary and to show the layers of memory sweeping through the ruins opened the door for Art from the Ruins.

Full entry into the project came about when the Canadian Arts Alliance of Canadian, Texas, seeing the potential in the concept, gave its enthusiastic support as a working partner. For their confidence in me as an artist and in the whole endeavor, I am forever grateful. Their commitment and tireless work brought Art from the Ruins to its full realization as a traveling art and history exhibit.

See exhibit schedule at Art from Ruins.

 -Doug Ricketts