Geoffrey Ridge

“I find most of my inspiration in the world around me, often in the natural environment. What typically happens is that I see something and the qualities of the object appeal to me abstractly. I also look for an emotional response, and /or resonance with a literary, poetic, or philosophical concern. Making the image is intellectual exercise, intuition and application of craft. Translating the real existing, three dimensional, temporal, cloud, for example, into lines carved into a rigid copper plate that will be printed in black and white, is the challenge. I am not really concerned that the viewer “gets” my inspiration. I choose the subjects that I do as a consequence of my own life experiences. These form the “filter” through which I assign meaning to the world. My associations with things seen will necessarily be different than those of another. If someone else finds the work exciting, be it for their own reasons, I still find that very gratifying.”

Geoffrey is a native of Colorado, born in 1961, and raised in Loveland. He graduated form Loveland High School in 1979, and began attending Colorado State University that same fall to study music. Music didn’t work out, and as he had always been one to draw, he changed his studies to art. He studied printmaking under the tutelage of Jack Orman and Jim Dormer. He received his BFA in 1985, and put in three years of graduate school before leaving to go teach English in Japan. In Japan he lived and worked for just over four years. Besides teaching, he studied Japanese, calligraphy, and koto. In 1997 Geoffrey arrived in Denver, via Olympia, WA and Boulder, CO. While still in Boulder he decided it was time to put all of the study to practice and start engraving some copper. For the last ten years Geoffrey has been printing at Open Press in Denver.

Select Exhibitions

Republic Plaza Show, Republic Plaza, Denver CO 2007

The Small Print Show, Open Press Gallery, Denver CO 2005

4th Lessedra World Print Annual Sofia, Bulgaria 2005

Open Press Ltd. 15-Year Retrospective, Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, 2004

Los Angeles Printmaking Society 17th national exhibition, Los Angeles CA, 2003

Geoffrey Ridge: Engravings, Hatfield Gallery, Adams State College, Alamosa CO 2003

Three Printmakers, Emil Nelson Gallery, Denver CO, 2002

“PULP” Works on Paper, Fresh Art Gallery, Denver CO, 2001

Prints and Drawings, Open Press Gallery, Denver CO, 2001

Relief Prints, Open Press Gallery, Denver CO, 2000

Prints USA, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield MO, 1999

Open Press 10th Anniversary Show, Open Press Gallery, Denver CO 1999