I would almost always rather watch than be watched. I notice people, expressions, contradictions, small things. I tend to replay moments afterwards and understand them better once they are over.

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I am also quite guarded. I don't naturally put everything I feel on display.

But I do have strong convictions.

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I care about what is true. Not only the truths that are easy or comforting, but the ones that remain true when life is difficult, uncertain or doesn't turn out the way we hoped.

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That is where my art begins.

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I want my work to shine light.

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For me, light is not about positivity. It is about truth.

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Light reveals. It allows us to see what is actually there. Sometimes that is beautiful. Sometimes it is uncomfortable. Sometimes it is something we have always known, but have stopped seeing.

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My Christian faith is inseparable from this. I believe in a light that darkness cannot overcome. Not because darkness isn't real, but because darkness isn't the whole truth.

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I believe truth can withstand being looked at closely.

That is what I ask of my paintings too.

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I don't need them to make you feel good.

 

I want them to help you see. Or show what you have also seen.

 

Sometimes Biblical words are written directly into the work. Sometimes there are no words at all. There may be a face, a figure, a body surrounded by water, a person looking towards something we cannot see.

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The subject can change. The intention doesn't.

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Look at this. Don't overlook it. There is something here that matters.

 

I also believe in staying with things. I am not quick to walk away simply because something becomes difficult. I will work at it, question it, pull it apart and try again. I am interested in what remains after the easy answers have fallen away.

Perhaps that is why I am both an artist and an actuary.

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In my actuarial work, I use numbers, models and evidence to question what appears to be true. I look for patterns, test assumptions and try to separate signal from noise.

Art uses a completely different language, but I bring the same instinct to it.

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Both are ways of looking closely.

One through numbers. The other through paint.

 

I don't want to tell you what you should find in a painting. I want to put something in front of you that is worth returning to - something that can keep revealing itself long after the first encounter.

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Rika Taute