About The Artist
Roy Secord is a NYC artist whose primary, art expressions are large-scale & abstract paintings, sculptures, and mosaics.
PHILOSOPHY
A long-term New Yorker, the artist grew up in Florida and West Texas. His father developed ballistic, defense missile and NASA space systems as a profession. "My father had genius aptitudes in engineering and science but completely lacked arts aesthetics. He also discouraged them in his children. His sensibilities were cool, mathematical complexity and self-directed, geometric logic. My mother, on the other hand, came from an intellectually simplistic place of wholeness rife with elan, emotion, and the selfless heart. She had a great love of the arts and encouraged their development in her children. I am that marriage of opposites, that dichotomy, and my art is a reflection of that self. It is a marriage of two ways of being: as independent geometries and systems existing and interacting in complexity on a spatial plane drawing the viewer and object in deeper, and deeper still, for the prospect of a distilled and holistic, esoteric truth." Being an avidly deep practitioner of Buddhism and meditation for more than 40 years, the artist readily admits that (the concept of) an object imbued with these properties, like the classic, eastern Mandala art form, has great relevancy and the power to influence. Geometric abstraction remains an ever-continuing source of fascination and inspiration for the artist. It represents (to him) a universal constant of art expression & language streaming from ancestral cultures to technologically-advanced, modern societies in a non-stop continuum.
BACKGROUND
Roy Secord studied painting and sculpture at the University of Texas. He was subsequently chosen for a 2-year, formal apprenticeship with Mexican muralist and sculptor Mago Orona Gandara in the States and Mexico. Upon completion of his apprenticeship (working alongside a prominent, master artist in the creation of large-scale, public & private works of art on both sides of the border), he moved to New York City. He attended classes for a number of years at Art Students League (studying painting techniques under several internationally recognized and acclaimed painters) and also Sculpture Center (honing his direct carving techniques & mold-making abilities, as well as working in the foundry learning metal casting techniques under the tutelage of sculptor Robert Smith). He has taught assorted, art medium technique classes across Manhattan publicly and privately. He was the cofounder and past executive director of The Collage/Assemblage Society (a 501C3 nonprofit arts organization that provided exhibition opportunities and professional development for 125 professional New York City/Tri-state Area visual artists working in the mediums of collage and assemblage). He is the recipient of the coveted Pollock/Krasner Foundation Grant Award (June 2001) and the National Academy Abbey Mural & Public Art Fellowship (2009). The artist is a selected, long standing artist-in-residence with Chashama (NYC arts nonprofit organization) with his art studio located in Midtown East Manhattan.
ARTWORK
The artist exhibits through gallery venues, as well as creates large-scale artwork on commission for public art and corporate art venues (locally and nationwide). His primary expressions are large-scale, colorful and contemporary, abstract paintings on canvas as well as large-scale sculpture in a variety of mediums (primarily in steel or wood). He also works in tile, mosaic, glass, terrazzo, graphic design, and collage. Although he works in a variety of size formats, he states, "I continue to work in larger and larger formats. Scale is such a very important component for the success of an artwork. My work sings best in larger formats. I continue to intensely explore the never-ending possibility of shape, geometry, line, color, and their complex interrelationships."
PHILANTHROPY
Possessing strong, social mission, Roy Secord is also an arts educator/social reformer through "the transformative vehicle of the arts". He engages college students in formal, studio apprenticeships. He acts in the capacity of master artist/facilitator developing & implementing educational, arts programming for community youth/young adults which culminates in creation of public art for community. Integrating his personal, public art commissions, he provides hands-on vocational training for selected, at-risk youth/young adults acting in the capacity of artist assistants. He has extensive, reformative, art teaching experience, with focus on the at-risk (primarily youth/young adults in the criminal justice systems). As well, he has provided therapeutic, art programming for the health impacted (HIV/AIDS). He has educational training in developing & implementing arts programming for senior citizens to create multi-generational art programs to bridge generations. His arts programming with youth/young adults has been supported by/integrated with: NY Police Dept, NYC Dept. of Youth & Community Development, NYC Dept. of Probation (Juvenile and Adult Divisions), NYC Dept. of Correction, Public Housing, Manhattan Family Court, NYC public/charter schools, Columbia University, Carnegie Hall, Bronx Museum of Art, NYC Public Library, Harlem Hospital, AmeriCorps, YouthBuild/Youth Action of East Harlem, F.I.T. (Fashion Institute of Technology), GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis), and others. He strongly believes in the power of mentorship stating, “Every adult, regardless of resources, can make a crucial difference in the life of disadvantaged, young people. My beautiful, and powerful, inroad is through fine art.”
The artist is founder and executive director of nonprofit organization Project Y.E.A.H. (Young Empowered Artists 4 Humanity), Inc. Under educational, program facilitation by local, professional artists-in-residence, Project YEAH youth create and donate public art and performance to their inherent communities as community service.