Casey Rickey is a multidisciplinary artist working in the cross-section of physical and digital technique. His unique combination of abstract and vibrant pop-art styles is informed by the vast array of colors, forms, and textures found within street art, graffiti, and nature at large.

Casey first started practicing graffiti art at the ripe age of 10 years old, where he stumbled into a niche community of artists online, hand-drawing graffiti “slaps” AKA USPS stickers/labels, with original characters, tags, and lettering. Artists would leverage online platforms like YouTube, Flickr, and forums, to trade graffiti stickers with others around the world, for the purpose of “getting up” in different parts of the world.

But instead of putting up other artists stickers in the streets, Casey collected and held on to these stickers from artists from all over the world. Today, he incorporates/collages these stickers into many of his pieces as a memoir to this important era in his artistic development and life.

During this time, Casey amassed a following of around 1,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, which he leveraged to offer a custom sticker printing service named, “CGS Prints” which stood for, “Custom Graffiti Sticker Prints,” accepting cash through mail as a way of payment. It was through this process, where Casey discovered a passion for digital art, learning computer programs such as Photoshop in order to illustrate others hand-drawn stickers into digital files capable of being mass-produced into stickers.

In high school, Casey skipped standard art classes and moved straight into advanced placement, learning under Diana Govnik, an artist Casey believes as a key player to his growth to his artistic style and capability. Under her, he learned more formal art theory, and was able to explore many more mediums, such as colored pencil, charcoal, and watercolor, as well as continue to explore more digital forms of art, such as photography and videography.

When considering university, Casey discovered a small program at the University of California, Los Angeles, called Design | Media Arts, which only held around 50 students per class. Casey prepared a portfolio of 10 digital artworks, with the help of his teacher Mrs. Govnik, and ultimately was accepted into the program. It was UCLA where he would spend the next 4 years of his life, taking a deep dive into art theory and design practice, while continuing to grow his skillset and creative capability.

After graduating UCLA, Casey re-discovered his passion for creating physical art, after 4 years of primarily working in digital formats. He began further developing his abstract art style, using his new-found digital software knowledge to combine the two formats, in projects like “Synthesis” and his digital paint sculptures.

As Casey describes it,

“There’s nothing quite like using real paint and brushes, on real canvas. When compared to digital, you’re utilizing so many more senses. In a world where everything is being digitized, it feels good to go back to basics… Digital, on the other hand, requires a certain set of technical ability and knowledge. Motion graphics is a clunky / nonlinear process. Battling with software, to get the results you have in your head. For the most part, it’s not really real-time (yet).

But I love working in digital, because the end-result is mysterious and magical, due to this underlying technical process required to produce the work. It leaves viewers wondering, ‘how was that done?’

I’m fascinated by this question around how traditional artists can translate their physical work into digital, without loosing its original integrity.”