Nice to meet you! I'm Ri.S.K. !
Ri.S.K. (aka Rick Kitagawa) is a visual artist based out of the foggy hills of San Francisco, California. Ri.S.K is a multi-disciplinary artist who paints in acrylic, gouache, and watercolor, illustrates in photoshop, and prints with silkscreen, linocuts, and letterpress.
Ri.S.K.’s work deals primarily with juxtaposition – the fantastical with the ordinary, imagery with text, contemporary with classic. The subjects of his prints and paintings range from cryptozoology to board games, from everyday objects and people to purple whales, from puns to politics. Often utilizing text to complicate/simplify/expound on the imagery, Ri.S.K’s work is often humorous but can contain deeper socio-political messages.
Born and raised in Stockton, Ri.S.K. moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue his Bachelor’s in Integrative Biology with a minor in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. After obtaining his degree, he left Berkeley for San Francisco, where he studied fine art and illustration at the Academy of Art University.
Ri.S.K. currently resides in San Francisco with his partner and fellow artist Eve Skylar. Together they run Monkey + Seal Press. Ri.S.K. also runs a wedding invitation consulting company named Little Yeti and teaches wedding invitation, bookbinding, and paper engineering classes for Paper Source Fillmore. Additionally he helps organize the Handmade Ho Down urban craft fair, the San Francisco Zine Fest, and the Paper Hat Production art extravaganzas.
To learn more, you can find him at his infrequently updated blog over at: politicsartculture.blogspot.com
Links:
Little Yeti - Wedding invitation consulting
Eve's site - visual development visual goodness
Monkey + Seal - the place where you can buy our stuff
Handmade Ho Down blog - urban craft holiday fair
SF Zine Fest - Zines! Comics! Crafts! More!
Paper Hat Productions - Gallery shows mixed with other cool stuff