Local artist lets music guide his brush
Production benefits Meyer CenterPublished: Monday, March 10, 2008 - 2:00 am
By Stacie Nichols
STAFF WRITER
snichols@greenvillenews.com
Artist Ric Standridge interprets the music of the Beatles with his art during an event at his studio in downtown Greenville last year.
STAFF/File
Ric Standridge wowed his Greenville audience last year with “The Love Show,” his first outdoor, live painting event set to music.
This year, the Greenville artist is trying to outdo himself with “The Liberty Rock Show,” a media/music mixture celebrating the history of rock.
The show, sponsored by The Liberty Tap Room, is set to take place on March 29 in the Greenville Drive Spinx Pavillion.
Following a Rock ’n’ Roll reception by Liberty Tap Room, Standridge will create 32 pieces of art, paintings ranging in size from 4x4 feet to 8x6 feet and several sculptures, to six decades of music.
Standridge has chosen 42 segments of music from rock ’n’ roll’s inception through today that represent history.
An auction will be held at the end of the show. Thirty percent of the proceeds from the art sales will benefit the Meyer Center for Special Children.
Standridge described his show as a “90-minute, delicious sensory assault.”
“I don’t know that there’s another artist doing this kind of venue,” he said.
Some of the topics he plans to portray are important historical events, he said. Among them: Kennedy’s assassination, Martin Luther King’s passing, the first man on the moon and the Vietnam War’s closing.
“There’s a lot to say, and it’s not about pretty pictures,” he said.
Standridge has hired a production crew for the event and plans to have several large screens positioned so that everyone in the audience has an equal view of his performance. As the music changes, so will the lighting design, along with
Standridge’s painting style and demeanor. The performance will be highly theatrical and will involve the audience, he said.
The effect he hopes to produce is a kind of “collective consciousness” between himself, the artwork and the audience, Standridge said.
At the end of the day the show will be a lot of work. Standridge already has poured many hours into notes and sketches for the event. But he is looking forward to giving back to the community and celebrating Greenville, the city in which he was born and raised, he said.
Tickets for the VIP Lead Guitar section are $100 each (only 100 available) and include early arrival all-access, unveiling of rock star paintings, inclusion in rock star painting give-away, preferred seating, reception dining with unlimited beverages and more.
Tickets for the Rhythm Guitar Section are $35 (only 300 available) and include reception dining, two complimentary beverages, the rock show performance and the auction.
Tickets may be purchased at the Peace Center Box Office. Call 467-3000.