Exhibitions

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art   

Richard Jesse Watson: Inner Zoo-Outer Orbit  •  Solo Exhibition   

October 2013 thru January 2014  •  Bainbridge Island,  Washington

Artist Statement

It occurs to me that a wounded poet bleeds poetry. But a wounded artist bleeds cadmium red dark. I mean, really, we find basically colored dirt and mix it with egg yolk, pine sap, latex or some other goop to make paint, then try to capture essence. 

We attempt to accomplish this with primative tools like charcoal, graphite or sticks with boar hair clamped on the end, or better yet, sable hair. And sure, maybe the latest iPad, which in three years will also become primative. 

In other words we are rooted in clay but our minds and spirits are orbiting way out on the fringes. To interpret reality artists struggle to get inside and outside reality~ "heads in the clouds". Artists are visionaries and often seemingly "out to lunch" because we are constantly de-coding visual stimuli.

But I do love being in this zone where I am coaxing dreams into reality or caressing reality back into a dream. 

Simon Mace Gallery  •  Port Townsend, Washington 

May 2015   •   Two-Person Exhibit   Richard Jesse Watson and Karen Hackenberg   June  2014 

Golden Kite Golden Dreams • Celebrating the Art of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

Golden Kite Award  • June thru October, 2010 • Curated by David Diaz

National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature • Abilene, Texas

Annual Juried Exhibition • August 2014 • R.J. Watson Special Award

Northwind Arts Center  • Port Townsend, Washington 

Special Award recipient, Richard Jesse Watson, with the award painting, Velocity 

Time Intrusionator Exhibit 

Washington State History Museum

Tacoma,  Washington

May 2014 thru April 2015

Museum Director, Stephanie Lile, wrote  and curated this weird compendium of true historical oddities, sparked by the nation's first UFO sightings above Mt. Rainier. 

Watson's sea serpent painting was based on accounts by "reliable witnesses" published in the 1908 Port Townsend newspaper. 

Other Washington artists embroiled in the exhibit were Julie Pashkas, Mike Cressy, Jo Gershman, Craig Orbach, Karen Lee Schmidt, Tucker Sharon & Paul Owen Lewis.

Watson, nearly capsized with all the shenanigans at the Time Intrusionator Exhibit.