Recently I sat down with Richmond-based artist Cameron Wilson Ritcher at his studio across from the public library on Hull Street in historic Manchester.
We talked about his life as an artist and the assemblaged, surreal, almost divine inspirations that shape his work. His practice feels like a product of risking absurdity now and then, challenging accepted norms of beauty, and pushing at the edges of what it means to live as a full-time studio artist.
Although Ritcher was born in Carbondale, Illinois, he moved to the Valley as a toddler. Growing up together in Harrisonburg was a gift. I’m slightly older, and I remember meeting Cameron in youth group. His father, a music professor at JMU, quickly cast us in a church musical written just for us, where I played his father.
Those stories may seem unrelated to his art, but they point to something essential. From a young age, I watched Cameron love, praise, and honor the world around him. We both grew up as musicians, and around the time I entered JMU, we went on our first mountain bike ride together. Riding like that is its own kind of art, its own flow. Cameron embodies that philosophy completely.
When I asked how spirituality plays a role in his daily life and creative practice, we both perked up and laughed a little.
CWR: “Those things are pretty intertwined, the spiritual and creative aspects. When I’m making a painting, the primary or maybe the only real skill that I have is just being able to hear God or the divine voice or your intuition or whatever it is you want to call it and just being able to trust that it’s revealed to me in time… It’s less about flexing my knowledge of color theory and more just about noticing the beautiful things that God has already done.”
While that isn’t the entirety of his work, it is central to who he is. Cameron is a Christian, husband, and father, in that order. Recently, he and his wife Emily welcomed their first child, Sarah Jubilee Ritcher. She is adorable, and her arrival feels like another extension of the beauty Cameron speaks about and tries to honor in his work.
Before driving to meet him, I had scribbled a few questions on loose leaf paper at the food co-op. One of them had to be asked.
ALH: Do you have a favorite color? I know it’s a loaded question, but in your recent assemblages, what colors and shapes are you drawn to?
We laughed again as I pointed to pieces hanging on the wall.
CWR: “I’m mostly concerned with discovering things about color and shape. The typical artist’s answer is I like all of them. I like this chartreuse yellow, that’s sort of like my favorite, but you can’t use it too much. It’s like adding too much Maldon salt to a chocolate chip cookie.”
The piece he referenced sat just to his left as we lounged on his leather couch. Across the room hung a five-by-five square made up of smaller stitched squares, quilt-like, each plane holding its own symbol. I asked how semiotics and symbolism factor into his work.
CWR: “I’m pulling from a lot of different sources. I’m always trying to figure out what my work means as I am making it… My work is me trying to make sense of all of these things that I’ve observed about the world, from water heaters to Egyptian hieroglyphs to a plant that I noticed growing in the crack of the sidewalk.”
Lately, he said, he’s been gravitating toward circles and round forms.
Before wrapping up, I asked him about “Left Brain,” a new collaborative venture he’s developing. It’s designed as a guidebook for emerging creatives, offering a framework for building a sustainable, working creative life. It’s part philosophy, part practical roadmap.
You can learn more about Ritcher’s work, commissions, and the Left Brain project at his studio website HERE.
If I may add one last note, Cameron is one of those artists who remains sincere through all the ebbs and flows. There’s no performance in it. He keeps his ego in check and stays on his own path. He keeps things playful. And in a world that can feel loud and chaotic, that steadiness might be one of the most meaningful parts of his practice.
Main photo courtesy of Cameron Wilson Ritcher
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