While residing on the Mendocino Coast for over 35 years, Ricia Araiza and Michael Leventhal (RAML) each enjoyed separate careers. Ricia is a well-known interior designer and Michael is a highly esteemed architect who recently retired from his Fort Bragg office. Between them they have raised six beautiful children and 5 grandchildren so far. Even though they have both painted their entire lives, (Michael has a Masters in Painting from UCLA), the first collaborative painting effort wasn't until their 8th wedding anniversary in 1995. As Ricia explains, they wanted to spend a quiet day together creating art. She pulled out one of her collages in progress to work on, “Michael turned it horizontally, and painted lines on it, which changed it completely. And they were off........and have never looked back.”
Their concept of collaboration is quite different than most paired artists approach, as they truly work on the same canvas at the same time. In fact, when they look back on their work they can hardly tell who created what color or stroke. "Collaborative painting is like dancing,” Ricia says. "We play off each other, pushing and pulling multiple layers until the painting emerges. Sometimes we sit back and watch each other work, but we never paint alone on it.” “And,” adds Michael, “It is never done until we both say it is finished.” Their preferred medium is acrylic, collage, found objects with pencil or ink highlights.
How they begin the process is also fascinating. They may start with a word painted on the canvas or one of them has an inspiration........and then the play begins......always spontaneously. They explain, “Our paintings are conversations between us and just as in a verbal conversation we don't know where the painting will go, but we go with it. So we get to be delighted and surprised by what happens. We add and subtract until it starts to say something - and then we go with it, often not knowing until much later what the piece means to us. That is the joy of our process. It is our private language. But hopefully it is also universal.”
Ricia and Michael were among the founding members of Partners Gallery in Fort Bragg, where they still show occasionally. Their work can be seen at Glendeven Wine Bar(n) in Little River and the Kevin Milligan Gallery in Danville. Their work is in many private and corporate collections around the country as well as The diRosa Preserve. Please refer to their website for further information.
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