Rick Rothrock’s artwork encompasses stone sculpture studio work and public art installations. With its vocabulary of geometry and composition, Rick’s artwork strives to communicate the sense of beauty, reconciliation and peace that he finds predominant in nature. Stone has been the primary material featured in Rick's work for decades. Most of the artworks are monolithic yet have compositions relying on multiple relationships of material, form, color, texture, balance and movement. The abstraction in these works reveals the physical and visual phenomena that exist in nature rather than represent fauna and flora. Many of his artworks contrast the natural surface and structure of stone with its inner and invisible beauty.
Through public works he seeks to energize a place by evoking something essential in its nature by considering the unseen forces of the seasons and providing a platform for human interaction as part of the subject matter. Seating, solar orientation, traffic patterns, material, and language encourage relationships between the people, the sculpture, and the natural physical world. Rick’s public environments evoke curiosity, encourage exploration, and promote interpersonal interaction.
Rick was trained as an educator, a craftsman and an artist. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture. He also studied stone carving in Pietrasanta, Italy. As an advocate for the arts, Rick initiated the establishment of the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in 1978. Rick is a founding member of the international artists consortium, SYNE and has exhibited in Sweden, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and the USA. Rick is an instructor at the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in Vermont has been an invited artist to several sculpture symposiums.
EDUCATION:
Pelicani Blasco Studios Pietrasanta, Italy Independent study 1989
University of Delaware Newark, DE, Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture 1978
Kent State University Kent, Ohio, USA Blossom Arts Program 1975
Millersville State University Millersville, PA, Bachelor of Sci, Education 1972
SELECTED COMMISSIONS / COLLECTIONS :
Oculus Giorgetti Park, Rutland, Vermont (to be installed)
Twin Obelisks for Brownie Clifford Brown Greenway Park, Wilmington, DE
Cliff. Brown Listening Room Clifford Brown Greenway Park, Wilmington, DE
Reflection Delaware Rotaries / Delaware State Parks, Wilmington, DE
Rendezvous Wilmington Arts Commission, Wilmington, DE
Brandywine Overlook Dlawaree Div of Parks and Recreation, Wilmington, DE
Five Elements fountain DET Inc, King of Prussia, PA
Quill and Cube Constitution Park, Dover, DE
Three Mill Pylons Three Mill Rd Corp Center, Wilmington, DE
Bilateral Agreement Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, NJ
Offspring Bristol Myers Squibb, New Brunswick, NJ
Moving Mountains Hercules Corporation, Wilmington, DE
Outside In Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA
Changing Earth exhibits Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA
ART RESIDENCIES:
Artist in Residence– 2012 Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, West Rutland, Vermont
Marble Carving Symposium 2010 Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, West Rutland, Vermont
ScupltFest 2008 Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, West Rutland, Vermont
Vondereau Museum "Milseberg Basalt Symposium” 2001 Fulda, Germany
Delaware Arts in Education Program 1993-1994 Wilmington, DE, USA
Connemara Sculpture Center 1988 Dallas TX, USA
PROFESIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Curator –SculptFest 2011 Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, West Rutland, VT
Instructor – Monumental Concepts 2011 CSSC, West Rutland, VT, USA
Instructor - Open Stone Symposium 2009-2012 CSSC, West Rutland, VT, USA
Community Arts Coordinator 1978-1981 Absalom Jones Art Center, New Castle County, DE, USA
Instructor: Sculpture and Photography 1978-1980 New Castle County, DE, USA
Pennsylvania Permanent Teaching Certificate 1975
Teacher – Industrial Technology 1972-1976 Bloomsburg, PA, USA
