"Friends: Screaming and Laughing" (Polyptych)

Tom Richard, Monticello, AR
Friends: Screaming and Laughing (Polyptych), 2026
Watercolor and graphite on paper
9 x 7” each

When I watch the news, my reaction is to either SCREAM or LAUGH! In this endeavor I feel we can all find common ground.

My recent creative practice focuses on engaging audience, involving community in the process, expanding that community and audience, and blending my studio practices with the community.

"Friends: Screaming and Laughing" Series that now consists of over 100 finished and in process watercolor portraits. Many more will follow. These watercolor portrait paintings of friends are grouped by the community that they are from.

Community is no longer just an audience, but is now a part of my process, the product, and the message of history of these people, from these places, at this moment.

While my work is not overtly political, it relates to history as a fact of unrest, seriousness, and frivolity.