Although formally trained with a MFA in painting, Rickey Jewell Hohimer has used the styles of Van Gogh and Gaughin to reach for the spontaneity and simplicity of today's folk art.

Hohimer creates figures which are not photos of reality; they are romantically stylized to encourage straightforward emotional responses both to the colorful images and to the situations in which they find themselves.

Each of Hohimer's paintings lays out a basic story line to which viewers add their own details.

"I want the viewer to become personally involved. My paintings offer a change from those which encourage extensive intellectualizing about what the artist is trying to convey. I want viewers to smile -- to enjoy the whimsical nature of what they are experiencing -- to feel it, not to analyze it!"

R.J. HOHIMER IS A PAINTER OF JAZZ AGE ART. His jazz paintings are stories on canvas of inspired musicians spontaneously making music of the moment. Life in the jazz age is clubs and nightlife beckoning to musicians to produce jazz art through music. R. J. creates paintings of jazz musicians, not necessarily recognized celebrities. Rather, he captures the total environment of jazz: The music, the lights, the audience, the smoke, and the jazz music. Ah, yes, the music! It is all there-- the actual creation of jazz on canvas.

Like jazz music, R.J.’s jazz art has a life of its own. Oil is brushed on canvas in the same rhythmic way that a drummer’s brushes are guided over the drum head. Colors, like notes, are improvised at random and painted across the canvas ending with a finished composition that captures the intuitive process as well as satisfaction with the final product. We revisit our own experiences with jazz music as we enter the world of Hohimer jazz art. The uniqueness of his art is that each time we look, we eagerly walk inside each painting. Not wanting the story to end, we imagine the next chapter—where lovers linger on the beach and jazz bands play until dawn.