ML Dreams: Richard S. Rutowicz, Artist and US War Veteran, Chicago, IL
MadeLOKAL: What was your childhood dream?
Richard: I wanted to be a priest. I had an accident that prevented me from being an altar boy once...and then I began asking questions.
MadeLOKAL: What’s your advice for today’s youth?
Richard: Learn to do many things with your hands. Our education system gives us limited time to discover who you are. As a youth, I just needed to be on the streets to learn and soak in life. The internet is great for me today because I can continue to learn. Age does not scare me. I envision there’s a lot more to life that we don’t even know.
MadeLOKAL: What are your dreams for the future generation?
Richard: It’s like a piano...it has 88 keys, but the possibilities are infinite. I’m a firm believer that each generation is part of an evolution process so *they* will do the dreaming for US.
MadeLOKAL: Can you speak a little about your work?
Richard: You have to be like the buddhist that has beautiful ideas and then erases them. No ideas should be permanent. The mandala is busy and yet is peaceful. It has a definite dichotomy. It is meditative and it stimulates the imagination. The mandala helps activate the pineal gland, the 3rd eye. The mandala encourages a union of both sides of the brain. Meditation is so important. To quiet the mind and think for yourself. The only way I can change the world is to change my thought and then share my thought and so we can change the world. Thoughts aren’t owned, they are meant to be shared.
Richard is a deeply reflective and philosophical man who speaks a lot of cosmosophy. He enjoys quoting directly from books that have inspired him and his mandala work made more sense to me after I read about one of his favorite authors, Gregory David Roberts, who discusses an individual’s “minuscule, yet not-insignificant role to play in the greater patterns that order our universe.” See Richard's mesmerizing art below:
Read about Mandalas!
Read about American Made Yoga Mats
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