Today we’d like to introduce you to Raphael Umscheid.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Oh gosh, this will start off depressing, but it all ends well. I also don’t think the story is so unique. Like many, my parents divorced when I was at a young age. I have to say that my parents did a great job of treating all involved with respect, but being an only child and living with my mom as she got her bachelor’s degree was a challenging time for all. I remember the first apartment that we moved to with the heroin dealer upstairs beating his wife and pistol whipping the neighbor!
It was during that time that my aunt and gramma would often take care of me. Gramma gave me the spoiling that I needed at the time and my aunt introduced me to the escape of art. She would draw horses all of the time and take me to the Natural Science Museum in Houston where I would wear out the button that made the rattlesnake’s tail wag. I became obsessed with the typical kid things: dinosaurs and sharks (I finally got to cage dive with some beautiful sharks in South Africa this summer!). My mom remarried, and we moved to the suburbs where I continued to spend time alone while they worked to make ends meet. All of this made me reach inside for my own amusement. It was challenging at time, but I don’t think I ever got bored. Thank goodness there weren’t iPads at the time! We moved again in my junior year, and high school was just a disaster!
All of this made me who I am today. The challenges and insecurities of being a kid finally gave way to confidence as I got older. I moved away and met a few key people that showed me a path towards art. So, I really had no idea I could even consider being an artist until I was 30. So, now it is a reverse process where I feel reborn, and I feel at times like my childhood is now. I keep discovering more beauty and things that I never knew existed, and now I’m happier than I’ve ever been with my art, wife, and fat cat!
Please tell us about your art.
I’ll answer the simple part of this question first; the what and the how. I make visual art typically with a camera or paint and canvas, but increasingly with both. I find that the more aspects I combine, the more the work is in my own space. I also find that what lacks in one medium I can gain from the other. Painting is slower and more satisfying physically (I have chronic body pain, so moving around is a must!), while with photography, I am able to collaborate and connect with subjects to achieve unexpected bonuses.
I’m inspired by so many things, but females and natural forms are always there. Mountains and oceans and strange spaces in between capture my imagination. Magritte, Helmet Newton, Stanley Kubrick, Goddard, Lynch are also somewhere in my mind.
My mind is racing so fast that sometimes I feel my art can seem to be a moving target. At the same time, I’m not sure I want to ever completely lock things down. I really have no memory for these flourishes of thought so I try to keep sketchbooks and recorders on hand. Ok, now, I am really appreciative of technology! Thank goodness for the iPhone! With the ideas written and stored somewhere, I can then take my time and curate and see what is really important to me. Perhaps, I think of things backward, but I go back and try to figure what is going on in my head. I’ll think: “Why do I keep doing these concave backs and why do keep encircling them with oceans?” The short answer is that’s how I feel.
It does feel like an accomplishment to have all the indicators appearing to point towards a certain point. I’m not sure I ever want to arrive at that point, though.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
It’s crazy, but lately, people have been asking me to be their mentor! I guess I’m officially old and wise! But, yes, I tell the youngers to be patient and let things happen. Stop trying to force it. Just constantly make and see. It took me an incredibly long time to find my own voice. And, on that note, I tell people how truly inspired I am at masters that have failed. Like, David Bowie in 1965! I’m a huge fan, but he was not great at this time! Or, he was indeed great, but it wasn’t quite gelled together so that we could see it. So, I feel I am getting better and better until the point where I’m not. That’s what I try to tell people. Never be satisfied, but try to not be down about it all. It will happen!
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Ideally, in a real, physical setting! The photographs and paintings just don’t have the life they need via a digital format. I have a grand vision for a body of work that will require a gallery with tall ceilings to achieve. So, I am looking for help in realizing that dream, so putting that out there!
In the meantime, I’ll be showing work in Austin as part of Precision Camera’s show on November 11 at Hive Hair Salon with some super photographers.
Other places that my work can be seen are in publications and my Vogue Italia portfolio: http://www.vogue.
I do take a lot of nude photos, so much of the work suffers due to censorship. So, the next best place to see my work is at www.raphaelumscheid.com
Of course, the easiest place these days is the old Instagram:www.instagram.com/
Contact Info:
- Website: www.raphaelumscheid.com
- Phone: 512-796-4605
- Email: raicane@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/soyuz11
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redghostphoto/
- Other: http://www.vogue.it/en/photovogue/myportfolio/?id=114120
Image Credit:
Raphael Umscheid
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