Ryder Richards explains this exhibition, a collaborative painting show of works by him and his mother, with the following words: "...a conversation, and if you look closely you can pick up the dialogue." He continues, "My mother and I have talked art and created art for the last 10 years. We use each other as sound boards for ideas, techniques, solutions, and resolutions. Last year we began a collaborative series of images. Each piece begins with an image and a laugh, then it is taken home and the other person adds their unique perspective to the piece. This happens four or five times and towards the end we work on balancing and harmonizing the image."



"The works reflect our relationship. These images are a conversation and if you look closely you can pick up the dialogue. You can see where I made a satirical jab and mom replied with a lavender background or a beautiful sunset. You can see where mom bespoke a beautiful icon from a foreign land and I returned with a city, a dragon, an angel and a boat. A prancing Jesus with guns becomes a comment on decoration just as domestic wallpaper transforms into a sexual metaphor," said Ryder Richards.



"Alone, neither of us would make something so multi-faceted, so complex. I would never solve a compositional problem with color, and mother would never depict baseball as love. Mother would never throw a slew of stuff into a space to make a comment on materiality. I would never duplicate a wallpaper pattern to speak about American stereotypes in the 1950s (I would draw a car or a WWII bomber). The truly amazing thing is that we both did what we do best: we made decisions equitably by attempting to hold up the other’s unique nature as worthy of love and respect."