“I’m a painter and sculpture. My vocation’s actually my
hobby”
[favorite restaurant]
Lindy’s and G. Michaels.
[last book read]
The biography of Georgia O’Keefe – “I never really
connected with Georgia O’Keefe. I’ll get books about
artists I want to know something about and find out
about their struggles and then maybe realize I’m on the
right track. I have a new appreciation for her work and
what she came through.”
[on odd hobbies]
An artist by trade, Randall says his vocation is
his hobby, but admits that he takes small pleasures in the
mundane. “My hobby is actually balancing my check book. Stuff
people usually hate to do,” he says. “Since I work 24/7 painting
and sculpting and I work for all of my other clients, what
people normally do because they dread it, I enjoy doing it
because it’s a break from the creative.”
Okay, he doesn’t find bill pay that exciting.
Randall also likes to get out a take advantage of the hiking and
biking trails in the city. “You’ve got the ones that go around
Goodale Park through downtown so you get a little urban scene
mixed in,” he says. “The trails are all hidden; people don’t
know that much about them. There’s one that goes all the way to
Worthington and Delaware.” Randall warns, “It’s a nice, long
scenic drive there; just make sure you have the energy to get
back.”
His favorite park is the one nearest him, Schiller
Park. He grew up around that area. “In the summer, on Thursdays
they have Shakespeare in the Park and I can walk from there over
to Max & Erma’s or G. Michaels.
[on finding inspiration at home]
Randall says he is
not attracted to the Arena District. “The whole hockey thing
doesn’t do it for me and the Short North is hit or miss. I have
the best inspiration and the best time just meeting everyday
folks. I enjoy that much more than going somewhere where
everyone is going to an event.”
He loves
Olde Towne East because it is still growing. “It’s the coolest
area, and you can still get a good investment. There are so many
artisans and craftsmen in this area. Here we get a lot of
professors and working artists from Columbus College of Art and
Design (CCAD), these are well-known, respected artist. These are
people who have a little bit more of an adventurous spirit. You
get a lot of interesting different people that you can learn so
much from,” he says. “I’m not one of those people who believe
you have to go somewhere to get culture; I believe culture is
where you live.”[on snow in the sanctuary and bats in the belfry]
Randall has lived in his
current home, The Garfield House, for four years. “I’ve never been one of those people who enjoy moving
to a fresh, new, clean place that doesn’t have history or any uniqueness,” he
says. “Unfortunately, we have lost so much
great architecture in Columbus.”
Randall took on the huge
project of renovating a church school built in the early part of the 20th
century. In 1910 one of the financial supporters for the structure was the
current president’s grandfather, who was also a member of the local Episcopalian
congregation.
“When I walked in there was a
pile of snow in the sanctuary and bats flying around,” he remembers.
Even though he is a muralist
and portrait painter, and he is known around town for decorative stone work.
That is why he liked the Garfield House place “It’s a great place for my big
studio,” he says.[on nurseries, buses and his
hiatus from the art world]
Randall enjoys success as an
artist, showing work in Atlanta, Chicago and Las Vegas. Much of the work he does
in Columbus is by commission.
Randall wasn’t always involved
in art. In high school he rejected the jock life for the pursuit of art and
eventually received a scholarship to CCAD. Before CCAD, Randall says he was sort
of a big fish in a little pond, at the top of his class when it came to
creativity and talent. When he arrived at CCAD, it was a different story.
“I realized, ‘wow, these people are really
good!’ There were people as talented as I was and more so. I
started having to really compete with people at the same level
as me and better. Needless to say, I didn’t do too well.”
He left school and art behind
to try other things. He worked in a nursery for awhile and drove a Central Ohio
Transit Authority (COTA) bus for a period of
time. “I’ve done it all,” he laughs.
For 11 years, Randall didn’t think about art
until the early 90s when a friend encouraged him to enter
something in a show called Art For Life. “When I did it I
thought, why did I agree to do this, I was real rusty,” he says.
He went into it with ambition and did a huge painting that
ended up being the third highest grossing piece at the show.
“People said to me, ‘I didn’t know you could paint!’”
[on being and nothingness]
From the response, he decided
to take another look at the world of art. “I was just a blessed man. People
really appreciated what I did,” he says. “I was doing things a little
differently than other people at the time. A lot of people were doing found art,
find a little piece of wood in an alley, paint it and call it art. Or people
were trying to capture that Jackson Pollock look with out knowing the concept
behind it. Everything had a convoluted sense of nothing.”
He started doing very classic
renaissance portraits with a contemporary edge by instilling his love of old
things. “I love pieces that look like they have stood the test of time.”
Currently Randall stays busy
working on commissioned pieces as well as renovating his home, which is turning
out to be a large work of art in itself.
Schiller Park -
Bounded by Jaeger Street, City Park, Reinhard and Deshler Avenues
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