Richard Rawlins is a Graphic Designer/Photographer/Artist/Creative Director, working in advertising for the last twenty years. Rawlins is the publisher of the online emagazine Draconian Switch (http://www.facebook.com/l/;artzpub.com).
His last showings were in 2007 for for the Radical Design Jeans Art Project where he exhibited his work ‘SPEAK UP’ and for 2009’s EROTIC ART WEEK with showings at multiple locations: CMB Annex Gallery showing of ‘OUT OF CONTEXT’ ( a book and video animation of ‘real life’ booty call text messages) and ‘NO ONE CARES’ acrylic on canvas board; he also showed ‘SPACE FOR RENT’, an installation at Brooklyn Bar.
He is currently exploring the writing of really bad spoken word poetry,(’This Ting This Ting’ written with Dave Williams and peformed by Indra Ramcharan for Erotic Art Week Spoken Word event)) as a medium of expression and is working on a book about his father and artist John Ambrose Kenwyn Rawlins’ work in miniatures (toys and doll furniture). He is and most importantly, the father of three beautiful girls.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Q: Richard, I think that you set yourself apart from the average graphic designer in Trinidad with your projects. What compelled you to start doing project?
A: I just felt that need to create stuff. I work in advertising,( an industry that’s rapidly changing) and the opportunities and fun I had when I was half my age as a designer, I don’t feel creatives today have. As a way of attempting to inspire the creatives that I worked with, I encouraged an environment in which we as a ‘collective’ could inspire each other and feed off each other. Art and design projects are the main way we do this. It’s good for my spirit feeding off this communal artistic energy.

Q:Did you meet with any resistance when you started doing them?
A: I don’t get resistance from anybody really for anything. My friends and colleagues say I’m “draconian” (lol). But seriously, I work at Collier Morrison & Belgrave and our agency has always been supportive of any creative project that I or any of our ‘collective’
has ever been involved in.
Q: Is business warming to your projects? If not,will collaborating be something that you would want to do in the future?
A: I don’t think business gets the whole ‘holistic’ view of ‘art and design’ for better living thing. But I have hope. It doesn’t deter me though from creating work, eventually someone will get it. Just look at the recent project on the paddock wall of the Savannah. We threw that in as part of a presentation to NCC for Carnival ’09 and they ran with it. Darren Cheewah just blew up on that wall. I have no problem with collaborating. Ultimately we don’t really ever do anything alone do we? Most of my projects have had some input from or been inspired by the conversations of my friends. Dave Williams for one always helps me bring perspective and value to whatever project I’m working on…and keeps me going when I want to just give it up.

Q:We were both at UWI over a month ago looking at student work, and your input was invaluable, what would you like to make students know about the business that you wish had been told to you when you were graduating?
A: I guess I would tell them just do the work. ‘Creating’ feeds your ‘spirit’. Always have a project you are working on. Start a project…and make sure and finish the project. Then do more work. Don’t be a slacker.
Q:What are your views on creativity and creative concepts in Trinidad and Tobago in the field of design today?
A: Design for me in it’s purest state is simply the process of finding a solution to a problem or set of problems. After that it could possibly be looked at as the governing rules for how we create ‘work’…balance, contrast, enticement and a whole host of other things. For me design is a subset of creativity. Trinidad and Tobago needs more design. Not borrowed concepts and solutions. Not borrowed rhetoric that doesn’t apply, but rather creative solutions geared for our site specific problems. I am still waiting to see real solutions for living under the name of design in this country.
Q:Who are you appreciating in design at the moment?
A: That’s easy Marlon Darbeau and Rodell Warner. They make ‘things’…and the things are ‘cool’.

Q: Do you have any favorite local designers and artist and who are they?
A: I call them the collective and it’s a long list…Tanya Marie Williams, Damian Libert,Darren Chewah,Dave Williams,Marilyn (Maro) Morrison,Nicole Noel, Indra Ramcharan, Terry Smith, Marlon Darbeau, Tracy J Hutchings, Rodell Warner, Brianna McCarthy, Christian Alexis, Darryn Boodan, Ivaek Archer, Anderson Mitchell and Ayodhya Ouditt.
I work with most of these people everyday. They are designers and architects and sound engineers and writers and people doing stuff. These are my tangible favourites. Then there are the people like you, Sean Leonard and Chris Cozier (Alice Yard) and Steve Ouditt who are chronicling and giving opportunity and encouragement to emerging artists. I am a fan of supporters of opportunity.
Q: You clearly love illustration, and particularly color field painting. Tell me about your art influences.
A: I’m in love with the “pop culture of mass consumerism”. Hence my penchant for Warhol’s repeating images and garish colours. I’m a big comic fanboy as well so I love Licheinstein and all things inspired by scifi and comicdom. I love ‘POP’ and the emerging graffiti/sticker/street art movements out of Latin America and Europe.
Q: What are you working on next?
A: A piece called ‘A PACK OF ASS’ for next year’s Erotic Art Week. A book called SMALL MAN.. The world my father made (about father’s work and studio, he was an artist and model maker), and AHZKEWED PERSPECTIVEZ the beginnings of a single showing ( struggling with that one though).

Q: Erotica Week was a great idea. How did it come about, give me the rundown.How did it get done?Was it difficult to co-ordinate? How did the team manage?
A: Well the idea started with Chris Alexis who said why we don’t…and from there Dave Williams does what Dave Williams does and issued orders as to what we would be doing to make it happen. Over the course of the next six weeks Chris Alexis, Terry Smith, Dave, myself and the ‘COLLECTIVE’ with major support from Nisha Hosein of SOFT BOX Gallery would pull out all the stops towards making it a reality. As we said erotic call for entries, the work started coming. The contacted businesses said yes to our endeavour and we had galleries. Nine to be exact. We got all this goodwill. It was great.
At the center of it all was a this genie in a bottle called Chantal Clement, who made everything we needed to have happen a reality. I can’t remember now if it was easy or even hard. All I know is we got it done.

Q:What was the feedback like for Erotica Week? What would you keep and what would you do differently next time?
A: Pre-show feedback was mixed. Ambivalence to excitement over the prospect of it all.
Post show was great…mostly positive. No real negatives. I think people were surprised at the varying range of pieces in the show. For some it was the first time they had been exposed to installations and interactive pieces and they thought it so fantastic they kept coming back. For some it was their first art exhibition exposure ever. That in itself makes the project really worthwhile. As to what I would change…not much. Next time…more artists from across the region I guess…and more emerging artists talks.

Q. Draconian Switch is your zine project. How did you begin this one, and what have been some of the highlights of the magazine?
A: Oh man that’s just a joy to produce. Marlon Darbeau and I had gone to a conference in St. Petersburg Florida, and we started talking about the need to do work outside of advertising and creating a vehicle by which emerging talent could be showcased. So then and there on the plane ride I decided to design the magazine. I started it on my way to the conference and finished it on my way back from the conference by laptop. The name came from the way I do things (as they always say about me). The rest is history.
The highlights are plenty. We’ve had 15,000 downloads in the year that we’ve been doing this magazine that’s one, creating a the catalog for Chris Cozier’s showing of “Available in all Leading Stores” in Puerto Rico is another, having all these creative people (too many to name here) to work with regardless of agency affiliation or age or whatever is really just cool, and finally seeing the EROTIC ART WEEK issue of Draconian Switch hit 2664 downloads in just two days.






![prwenn2046917[1] prwenn2046917[1]](http://sexypink.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/prwenn20469171.jpg?w=296&h=360)
![QyGOt5dgoh7fsurkE4JREiG2o1_400[1] QyGOt5dgoh7fsurkE4JREiG2o1_400[1]](http://sexypink.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/qygot5dgoh7fsurke4jreig2o1_40011.jpg?w=297&h=273)
















































Q. You, Tanya and Andersonare all doing exciting stuff. Tell me about your collaborations?




































Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk inspires
June 20, 2009 in Art in the world, artists works, comments on work from all over | Tags: Adele Todd, creativity, Elizabeth Gilbert, poetry, sexypink | Leave a comment
A dear friend once told me, be careful of success. Success can actually blunt your instrument. Whether it is your voice, your thoughts , your athletic ability or whatever it is that you do well.
There was a poem I learnt as a child that goes roughly like this….
The centipede was happy quite,
until the frog for fun,
Said, Pray, which leg comes after which?”
This worked his mind to such a pitch,
He lay distracted in a ditch
Considering how to run!
This is the challenge of success, it comes unexpectedly, and for some, there is no body of work that is satisfactory in the mind. You do not know what it is about this particular thing that caught people’s eye? Will doing another along these lines continue to attract, or will there be criticism? The likelihood is, both.
You can no more rely on the things people tell you in success, or in failure for that matter. The truth is normally down the middle.
Enjoy the doing, ignore everything else.