Meet Ricardo Estella, August’s featured artist
As part of our ongoing 40th anniversary celebrations, we are featuring a different CE artist and logo every month of 2023! Read more about our 40th anniversary and our featured artists ▸
Ricardo Estella poses for a portrait in the CE studio
It would be difficult to find a Creativity Explored artist with an artistic lineage as storied as Ricardo Estella. The 73-year-old artist has invested in his diverse and worldly creative practice for decades, continuing in the steps of his ancestors.
In 1951, Ricardo was born in New York City, then grew up in the Philippines on the northerly island of Luzon. He fondly remembers his childhood and family, many of whom still live in the Philippines.
Creativity runs in the Estella family: Ricardo’s father, Ramon A. Estella, was a famous painter, director, actor and sculptor in the Philippines, and the son of an accomplished composer. His mother was also an artist, and Ricardo credits his artistic inspiration and successes to the both of them, who taught him how to paint and sculpt as a child.
Teaching artist Victor Molina remarks that Ricardo is very familial, even nostalgic – indeed, Ricardo frequently honors his parents and how important they are to him. “They passed the gift to me,” Ricardo says.
When he was 23, Ricardo adventured for three months to India, China, Hong Kong, and Japan with his cousins; on this notable trip, he developed an interest in Indian mythology and Buddhism, themes that recur in his later works.
““[Art] is part of [Ricardo’s] heritage. It’s almost like he’s an art aristocrat, an art noble. He comes from this lineage. Everything he pulls out of his hat is because his mama did it, his grandma did it. ”
Stairway to Heaven by Ricardo Estella, 2018
mixed media on paper, 22 x 30 inches
In 1973, shortly after this voyage, dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines. Ricardo consequently fled to the United States, accompanied by his mother. “I thought there was going to be a war – that’s why we had to leave the country,” Ricardo remembers. “That was hard, very hard.”
The characters Estella draws and sculpts are drawn from extant mythologies, built upon his dreams, childhood stories, and classic storybook characters. He is an enthusiastic storyteller, with a fantastic imagination.
“He brings a wonder,” says teaching artist Victor Molina. “He has a gleeful innocence and enthusiasm for learning and exploring.” Victor notes Ricardo’s singular, “Warholian” obsession with balloons. In the studio, Ricardo is often delighted by stray balloons, exclaiming frequently that they are “just so cute!”
Though he is best known for his dramatic and colorful ceramic work and acrylic paintings, Ricardo skillfully traverses a wide range of media, working with paint, collage, sewing, clay, and papier-mâche. He is a versatile artist when it comes to subject matter and medium. A devoted Catholic, and believer in Jesus and Buddha, Ricardo’s work often features religious iconography, like crosses and angels. Animals also figure prominently in Ricardo’s work: he relates his lifelong love for animals, specifically Bengal tigers, to an experience he had in his 20s at the San Francisco Zoo, shortly after arriving in the United States.
“I put my hand inside the cage, and the tiger put his paw on top of my hand, and he looked at me and he winked at me. And then I was saying to myself, why did he do that? I asked the tiger the question: why did you wink at me? And then the tiger again looked at me and he winked at me again. And then he smiled at me. [...] I have a way with animals, people can sense that.”
Vintage photos of Ricardo Estella at the Creativity Explored studio
“I like being nice to people and helping them with artwork and ceramics. When I become a teacher, I want to teach [Liam Garsin] how to become an abstract painter.”
Ricardo also has a way with people: it is impossible to miss his fatherly nature. He loves children, often drawing families of animals and remarking on their “cute”-ness, and enjoys teaching children how to create. In the studio, Ricardo shows a lot of affection for his fellow artists: he greets them enthusiastically, and encourages their practice. At the same time, Ricardo takes advice on his craft seriously: “if he feels like you’re imparting knowledge, he will listen,” says Victor Molina.
Aside from visual arts, Ricardo has a deep fondness for music: he sang in his oldest brother’s band in the Philippines, The Checkmates, and played in the Creativity Explored band. He loves to play guitar (he owns two) and sing like his role model: the king of rock’n’roll, Elvis. (He has Elvis’ sunglasses, sideburns, jumpsuit, and scarf!)
Ricardo has become one of Creativity Explored’s most storied artists – first arriving at the studio in 1996, working till 2006, and returning in 2010 after a break. His favorite place is the Creativity Explored gallery, where he is free to dedicate himself to his artistic pursuits and create in the company of others.
“This place [CE] is like my second home, I don’t ever want to leave this place.”
