Welcome to
Rick Hernandez's
Webpage
amadorrh@texas.net
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\ Thank you for visiting my site. I have many divergent artistic, educational, and social interests. I am trained as a potter/sculptor, and I also paint and play music. I'm interested in all forms of art (past - contemporary) but am most taken when diverse disciplines, mediums and approaches come together in a work. These ideas are a direct reflection of the conceptual aesthetic concerns that were prevalent during my training. While my training was traditional, I was being most influenced by books like The New Avante-Garde: Issues for the Art of the Seventies that featured artists like Sol Lewitt, Carl Andre, Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman, Joseph Beuys and Mario Merz. It is from that background that I have gained interest in webpage designing/building. Sites that I have built are linked throughout this domain. I hope to keep learning about and being involved in technology, for the sake of work and art. Throughout this site I will be making images of my work available. One can see several paintings, poems and photos in the Rarotonga, Cook Islands section of this site by scrolling to the bottom and clicking on the Tribute and Kia Orana links. By clicking on the word "paint" in the second sentence of the first paragraph you will see a few select paintings. Others, as well as some sculpture can be found linked to the "Continue Your Journey" button at the bottom of this page. I am a firm believer in the educational, economic, social, and intrinsic "values" of the arts. Thirty years of working in the realm of public policy in the arts has strengthened those convictions. For the first time in many years I am focused on organizing, scanning and making available my portfolio. Much of the work was made prior to joining the TCA staff in 1980, when conflict of interest made it impossible for me to continue to exhibit in Texas. There are of course and will continue to be new pieces that I reveal now that I have officially retired.  (Click on the image above to enter) I am also very interested in international travel and the diversity of cultures in the world. In the last decade I have traveled to the South Seas, England, the Netherlands, and Mexico. My most extensive trips have been to the South Pacific. There I have found people from which I believe we have much to learn. Please enter these parts of my site for a glimpse at the people I have encountered and what they have taught me.  (Click on image to enlarge) In September of 2000 I traveled as part of a Maori tour group to the 8th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture in Noumea, New Caledonia. I'm pictured here at Taco Taco, the only "Mexican Food Restaurant" in Noumea. The tour was led by Steffan Panoho, owner of Navigator Travel in Auckland, New Zealand. My traveling companions were primarily Maori with interests in film and music. Unlike, my initial trip to the 6th Festival in the Cook Islands, it was my engagement with these individuals and other Maori I met along the way that made this trip particularly special. The Festival activities were full of magic moments, as were New Zealand and New Caledonia. On the pages linked below I will share with you a variety of images and stories from this experience. These pages are being built when time permits and include text, photos, and a bibliography and discography. So please come back periodically. The First Days The Seafaring Tradition Tattoo Ceramics Jamming  The beach at Anse Vata on the southern end of Grande Terre, the mainland of New Caledonia. (Click on Image) (Click above to see related hearts) The 7th Festival was held in Apia, Western Samoa in 1996. Circumstances precluded my attendance, so instead I attended the Festival virtually via the Internet. Technology is not foreign to the people of the Pacific. One of the delights of being in Noumea was the kiosks at which free Internet access was provided to check email and share experiences, as was done with me by colleagues in attendance at the 1996 Festival. Professionally, I am the immediate past Executive Director of the Texas Commission on the Arts, having retired on August 31, 2007. I served as the Deputy Director (Assistant Director) since 1988. Prior to that time I held a variety of positions with the Commission beginning in the mid-seventies as an artist-in-residence. One of the many highlights of working with the Commission was developing the ageny's Diplomacy and Protocol program which resulted in artists accompanying diplomatic missions from Texas to other countries and the commissioning of works by Texas artists for presentation to dignitaries on those trips. I will soon begin a photo journal of our trip to Nagoya, Japan to particpate and represent Texas in the World Expo.
Click on the Tinman to view Rick's Halloween '03 Celebration. Click link to view source photo for background graphic. Site last updated June 25, 2008
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