Rhinold Ponder

Artist

A viewer’s pain-filled sighs; joyful pauses; thought-provoked headaches; reflexive reconsideration and double-takes. Your tears. These things define my creative practice.

I create from an emotional place.  Sometimes joylessly; sometimes painfully, but my emotive response in the process always informs me when I have a chance to touch someone else with my work. I seek to be moved in order to move others,  whether it is through  a multi-colored painting mixing athletic form with drip and splatter technique or an abstract capturing the real pain of bodies drifting into the ocean during the Atlantic Slave Trade.

While my creative practice is constantly evolving – for me the joy of practice is continual growth and experimentation -- my current work reflects two strains of thought and provocation.  Much of my work, acrylics and mixed media, reflects my love of explosive colorful abstract and expressionist work with a focus on humanity’s faith and will to overcome adversity.  I am largely interested in expressions of hope and faith as unifying elements in a diverse society. I  love finding this in the human form in motion as in sports, dance, prayer and play.

I am an artivist (artist+activist).  As such, another strain of my work seeks to use art, through beautiful provocation, as an overt means of breaking communication barriers regarding race and justice.  As the founder of Art Against Racism, I work with many other artists who share the mission to use the arts to educate and inspire others to eradicate racism and create an anti-racist society.

I have been fortunate to participate in many solo and group exhibitions. I have exhibited at the Kehler Lidell Gallery (Connecticut), Princeton University, Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, Borders Books, the Sweettree Gallery and the Princeton Arts Council.  My work also lives in many private homes throughout the US.  No museum showings, YET.

Feel free to join and follow me on this wonderous journey.

Website: Ponderart.com and ArtAgainstRacism.org

Instagram: Ponderartist

Facebook: @Ponderartist

Email: rlponder@ponderart.com