As a small child I shared my visions  by making pictures. That act of magic still sustains me.

            My work explores the body-in-dream-- the human condition on the plane of the soul, where beauty and joy co-exist with the night-side of human nature-- a pageant of transformations.   Before I could talk, I was seeing these things in dreams and visions, compelled to make art from these moments of non-ordinary reality. My life’s journey is guided, and my art inspired, by the track of wonder-scent.  Like a Pythian serpent, the paint speaks secrets to me-- over the years I have taught myself almost all of what I know --how can tinted substances evoke energy, or the non-material?  Vivid colors interplaying take on qualities of iridescence, and scattered light. That paint can do this amazes me.

           I paint in acrylic and occasionally in other water-based media and in oils. I draw in pen, pencil, and mixed media. Other experiences involve creating theatrical backdrops, murals, collage, sign painting, mask-making in clay and paper-mache, silk painting, costuming, and elaborate face and body paintings.  Lately, I have played with fusing these last techniques into a new  exploration with photography (see the “Camera Paintings”  and “Making a Spectacle of Myself”  galleries.)

            Since 1994, I have traveled over the U.S. to sell my work in gallery, retail, and alternative venues, conventions and festivals, and private sales around the country. My images have been featured on and in magazines such as Green Egg, Hecate’s Loom, Mezlim, Psychedelic Illuminations, Tapestry Journal, and Reclaiming Quarterly.  I’ve provided work for card games, logos, T-shirts, brochures, and CD album covers: “Ancestor Energy” and Mojo Roots: “Prakriti’s Kiss.” I have also organized, produced and curated group performance/art shows based on original themes of my own, such as “Erotic Angels”-- presented March 2004 in Minneapolis (see “Making a Spectacle of Myself” for more description.)

             “Paul B. Rucker combines myths, visions, and dreams with images from the natural world to produce paintings that nearly leap off the canvas with movement and energy,...  Figures are outlined in light, suggesting their auras, leaves sprout from their heads and bodies, and flames leap from their brows... Viewers seeing Rucker’s work for the first and subsequent times are frequently struck by the feeling that here are scenes and figures that have always existed in their dreams and memories but that they never saw clearly before. The suggestive depths of his images remain fresh with familiarity and continue to evoke reveries and fleeting visions.”  (James A. Runnels)