By Sana Rose, Contributor 
Atkinson
THESE DAYS, artist Richard Atkinson is pleased with the increasing momentum of the development of his work and its appeal to a growing pool of patrons. His relief and free-standing painted sculptures are made from with a technique that is traditionally considered craft.
It is papier mâché, a medium which many persons may have even worked in before, particularly as a child in art class small bits of paper held together with a binding agent used to create three-dimensional forms, especially masks.
In Atkinson's case, his papier mâché sculptures, created in his home
studio, are not merely infantile preoccupations, but are rather purposeful works of art that recall memories of his past rural upbringing and his sense of personal history. His pieces often mimic the look of bronze with paint, while other pieces take their colours from nature as they depict rural scenes and musicians and dancers enthralled in the music being played.
The artist was born in 1970 in Cedar Valley, St. Thomas, and grew up in Greenwich Farm in Kingston.
As a child, he made his own toys and a variety of other items from recycled detritus, as the thought of turning old things in new objects appealed to him. He was later apprenticed to one of his uncles in sign-painting and illustration which, for nine years, facilitated an income, but soon the returns from these occupations decreased and forced him to tap into other avenues of creativity.
"I always felt that I had
artistic talent. I was skilful in making craft," he says. This acknowledgement of his talent led him first to jewellery and subsequently to painting, but these seemed insufficient in quenching his thirst for creativity. He realised that he liked both two-dimensional and three-dimensional art and ideally a marriage of both would certainly pose a greater challenge. While he maintained sign-painting and illustration, he continued to experiment with other media that eventually led him to another window of opportunity - papier mâché.
Papier mâché, a French term meaning 'chewed paper', did not originate from France. Rather, the technique evolved in about the second century A.D., out of China, the country responsible for the invention of paper as we know it today. The word 'paper' is a derivative of papyrus, the material that had its heyday during the much earlier era of the Egyptians. A highly versatile technique, papier mâché was refined by various practitioners to the point where three-dimensional objects, including furniture and incredibly, boats and buildings, could be produced.
CHEAP MATERIAL
Atkinson's introduction to the medium in 1996, while it occurred out of this search for a medium of expression, also derived out of availability. The high cost of art materials compelled him to accept paper as a viable option in making art. After all, "I could find it easily. Newspaper was practically everywhere, so I tried making sculpture with paper," he reasons.
This move may also have been in response to his passion for recycling materials. Experimentation took him through the rudimentary steps of acquaintance with the medium. At first, he mixed the paper pulp with pure water and applied it to hardboard and in the process discovered that it could be moulded into various forms. This led him to add glue to the mixture for firmer structures beginning with flowers, which he produced on a small scale and sold at art fairs. Viewers began to question the nature of the medium and in discussions with a few persons, he was able to ascertain the name of the technique which he, until that moment, had thought was his own entirely new invention.
Atkinson's appetite for knowledge about his new-found technique drove him to research the medium and in the process he began to learn about its versatility and find better recipes to make his pulp mixture, which he uses to mould his forms. His research even took him to London for six months, a trip made possible through the sponsorship of a patron who liked his work and saw the need for him to expand his understanding of and expertise in the medium. As part of this visit, he enrolled in a six-week papier mâché course, where he learned the basics about and the history of the medium. He went on to delve into relief human forms and realised that with care a certain amount of detail in the features could be maintained and with these various explorations, he became more daring with the level of his relief, the figurative details and the scale of his works. Over time, his clientele grew from art fairs to gift shops and to visitors to galleries confronting him with the artform's financial potential. Soon, he stopped making signs altogether and focused solely on his papier mâché pieces.
SELF-TAUGHT
Atkinson is largely self-taught as an artist and is managing to carve out his own niche on the art landscape both locally and abroad. His professional and organised approach to his artmaking and marketing has enabled him to exhibit widely and participate in art fairs to acquire steady exposure and promotion. He assumes all his promotional activities, planning business trips and trying to keep up with the demand for his work. He staged his first solo exhibition in 2002 and since then has continued to develop his sense of form. As part of his marketing strategy, he maintains two types of works for two different markets - meaningful conceptual pieces reserved for exhibitions and a generally more commercial collection of works that are geared to meet the more popular themes in the wider marketplace. He has been a member of the group of Jamaican artists that have participated in the Caribbean Gift and Craft (Trade) Fair in Barbados and Grenada. On his second visit there, he won the award for the 'Best Handcrafted Product in the Caribbean', which he considers to be 'a big plus in my career'.
The artist continues to display humility in his quest to thoroughly explore his medium of choice, which augers well for the future in which he sees himself training and encouraging others in the field and staging more exhibitions of his work. The artist shares that, "I am making a comfortable living from art, thanks to my supporters," referring to the often challenging balancing act to make this a reality. While he is making it (his living) with paper, Atkinson continues to work towards higher levels of growth in his work.
