Bruce Rimell is a visual and graphics artist working with a variety of mythological, psychedelic, visionary, storytelling and petroglyphic themes based in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire in the UK. He produces art in a variety of media from inks and markers on card through acrylics on canvas as well as digital vector art printed on textiles or as part of video work. His work is just as often described as Aboriginal or tribal in style as it is described as reminiscent of Keith Haring and graffiti art, and he aims to bridge the gaps - stylistic, cultural and spiritual - between the very ancient and the very modern. From works of a visionary art type to organic landscapes and mythological narratives, his work is sometimes described as genre-baffling...
:: bruce says ::
I'm originally from the south west of England: my home town is Swindon in Wiltshire, county of Stonehenge, Avebury and many other megalithic monuments set in an eerie landscape which somehow always makes me feel at home. I'm also commonly to be found in the city of Bristol as I still have some good friends living there. I also spent two years living in Japan, which is where my art career began, and I am still able to speak, read and write Japanese fairly fluently.
I’ve been reading mythology since I was a kid and it has become the ruling passion of my life, contributing a great deal of inspiration to my art. For me, mythology isn't just mumbo-jumbo but contains much truth, not just in a sacred sense. The technical languages of myth encode such diverse information as ancient history, psychological insights, astrological and philosophical theories and a sense of wonder at our world. Taken non-literally, mythology has been mankind's greatest and longest living teacher...
The love of my life is Chris Riley - we share our house and our life in Shipley, and it's pretty much fair to say that without him I would not have been able to explore my art and my poetry so deeply. Support, communication, ecstasy, warmth, affection, joy - these things are what love is for me, and although we sometimes hit bumps on the road of our relationship (doesn't everyone?), for the most part this is exactly what we share. Chris knows that pretty much everything on this site connects back to him in one way or another...
Chris has his own website full of writings at www.chiriz.net
I love to travel, and one of the things I like to do most is combine this love with my fondness for ancient history and in the image above you can see me and Chris at the bull's horns stela at the Palace of Minos at Knossos on the island of Crete. I'm really moved by Minoan art but inh truth no one really knows who the Minoan people of ancient Crete were. My money's on them being a unique Old European culture that was replaced by Greeks in Mycenean times, but archaeology has a habit of throwing up surprises. One thing's for sure: the Greek myths about Minos and the labyrinth encode some very ancient memories about these people...
The Palaeolithic Cave Art of Southern France and Northern Spain is also for me some of the most awe-inspiring art that mankind has ever produced. The dark caverns atLascaux, Altamira, Les Trois Freres and Chauvet hold what I consider to be the truest and purest art I have seen. Kind of an unimprovable original in that it truly aimed for a holistic intent, to open the eyes, to encapsulate the world into a single mandala, to reveal... This for me is the primary function of artistic endeavour.
If you want to know more about me or my art, or if you are considering commissioning me to complete some work or a project for you, then please do feel free to Contact Me via email in the first instance. Also, if you want to tell me about something I might be interested in (I usually am!), then do contact me as well.
Copyright (c) 2002-2008 Bruce Rimell : All images, artwork, writings, texts and other information on this site
are copyrighted to Bruce Rimell and may not be reproduced in any form unless stated otherwise.