Richard J. Cronborg is a self-taught artist who searches for universal themes which evoke specific emotions from the viewer. He is interested mainly in sexuality and mortality in his narratives.
He looks for the souls of individuals in his work, and tries to represent them on the canvas. He paints drunks, fairy godmothers, prostitutes and invented scenarios which are drawn from observing everyday life. He paints in color and black and white. He draws greatly from mysticism, religion, pornography, anthropology, philosophy, psychology and he is influenced greatly by German expressionism, pop art and Deco. He enjoys using symbols to evoke emotions in his work. He believes in Jungian collective unconscious and tries to infuse his work with symbols that the viewer can relate to in a variety of ways to understand the story that he is trying to illustrate. He believes that he is a "modern day shaman" whose main responsibility is to become a vehicle for an energy greater than himself. He sometimes feel like an "idiot savant", and paints intuitively rather than strategically. He researches images, does preliminary prototypes and agonizes over composition and color, but once the brush is in his hand, all prior planning may go by the wayside. Painting allows him to exorcise personal demons and search for "who I am". If there is one thing he has learned since starting this artistic journey, it is that he feels: "we all die confused".
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