Matthew Rucker
Matthew Rucker is a colorblind painter based in Minnesota. Painting is a way for me to go to a place that existed only in my dreams when I was young. This place was quiet, clean and simple. Most importantly to me, in spite of my colorblindness, I could see everything in bright and vivid color. My paintings are snapshots of this place.
Painting is a way for me to learn about myself; particularly, the things that I hide from my conscious self. Through this process, I capture what is most familiar to me: duality, contradiction and ambivalence.
My life is a ride on a pendulum, swinging between polar opposites. I simultaneously stand on two opposing sides, struggling together at the same moment. It is this moment of black and white, pleasure and pain, human and nature, that I know best and that I paint most.
I use pure and saturated colors in my paintings for a very simple reason, I’m colorblind. I can see approximately 1% of the colors a person with normal color vision can see. I can’t see or match color the way most people can. I therefore have to mix a palette in a way that differs greatly from the average artist, and (when I don’t have help) paint without knowing how accurate my colors are. This isn’t necessarily a handicap. In fact, I think it adds a lot of versatility, originality and a unique cleanness to my paintings.
