Rick Griggs, born in Texas, is a painter, wood worker, and sculptor now working out of St. Louis, MO. Inspired by industrial fabrication and product design, his work breaks commercial utility into its simplest elements. With special attention to the curves of a vintage car or the gloss of automotive paint, Griggs investigates the choices that go into manufacturing luxury and celebrates the roles of individual parts before they are viewed as one cohesive mechanical system.

“As far as I can remember, my tendency is to transform raw materials into revised visual objects. The current usage of materials is conveying transformation. Utilizing my skills in woodworking and painting, the simple act of restructuring materials with the application of various media becomes the metamorphosis. The repetition of my actions creates a rhythm much like that of a factory and my time as a pastry chef; I’ve realized recently, this repetition is a sort of catharsis. My Influences are the factory and products of the industrial revolution; the constant repetition of actions represented in the factory/kitchen and all that we derive from nature and it’s repetitive processes...”