About The Reluctant Artist:
A beautifully crafted art book and memoir, The Reluctant Artist is the story of one man’s singular dedication to art, absent any apparent interest in public recognition or acknowledgement. It is also the story of what it was like to be that man’s daughter, during the turbulent 60’s and 70’s in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Praise for Joe Rice and The Reluctant Artist:
Joe Rice might have been a reluctant artist, in the sense of one who works outside the public eye, but it's clear that making art was what he most wanted to be doing. His artwork provides intimate histories–the many self-portraits, the depictions of domestic spaces and acute observations of daily life. . . Rice’s intricate weaving of the intimate with the expansive, the familiar with the experimental–and he was always trying out new things–is what art does best, rewarding those who look closely. Who better to guide us to look more closely at a father who is an artist, than a daughter who is a writer?
~ Allan deSouza, Chair, Department of Art Practice, University of California, Berkeley
Dorothy Rice has not only written a memorial for her father, she's established herself as a different kind of artist in her own right: a gifted writer who, in eloquent and delicate prose, reveals the joys and costs of being an artist. Visual, emotional, and insightful, this book is a must read.
~ Emily Rapp Black, Author of Poster Child: A Memoir and New York Times bestseller The Still Point of the Turning World
Joe Rice tackled diverse modes of art making throughout his long career in the San Francisco Bay Area. The exquisite highs and lows of the practice were central to his life to the exclusion of any effort to find an audience for his work. Such a curious and passionate man deserves our notice.
~ Jim Melchert, Professor of Art Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
A beautifully crafted art book and memoir, The Reluctant Artist is the story of one man’s singular dedication to art, absent any apparent interest in public recognition or acknowledgement. It is also the story of what it was like to be that man’s daughter, during the turbulent 60’s and 70’s in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Praise for Joe Rice and The Reluctant Artist:
Joe Rice might have been a reluctant artist, in the sense of one who works outside the public eye, but it's clear that making art was what he most wanted to be doing. His artwork provides intimate histories–the many self-portraits, the depictions of domestic spaces and acute observations of daily life. . . Rice’s intricate weaving of the intimate with the expansive, the familiar with the experimental–and he was always trying out new things–is what art does best, rewarding those who look closely. Who better to guide us to look more closely at a father who is an artist, than a daughter who is a writer?
~ Allan deSouza, Chair, Department of Art Practice, University of California, Berkeley
Dorothy Rice has not only written a memorial for her father, she's established herself as a different kind of artist in her own right: a gifted writer who, in eloquent and delicate prose, reveals the joys and costs of being an artist. Visual, emotional, and insightful, this book is a must read.
~ Emily Rapp Black, Author of Poster Child: A Memoir and New York Times bestseller The Still Point of the Turning World
Joe Rice tackled diverse modes of art making throughout his long career in the San Francisco Bay Area. The exquisite highs and lows of the practice were central to his life to the exclusion of any effort to find an audience for his work. Such a curious and passionate man deserves our notice.
~ Jim Melchert, Professor of Art Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley