LURK

Lurk: Created September, 2011 By Nick Ringelstetter

This piece is not only visually stimulating, it also serves as a personal reminder to the artist of his early life as the connection between Nick and Lurk runs deeply. We look at Lurk and we see a large, unsettling creature looming over a small village, and perhaps your first thought is that he might attack. As children, we are taught that monsters are dangerous and scary, stuffed full of malicious intent. However, if you look closely at Lurk’s eyes you can see the overwhelming curiosity, brimmed with fear. The village, while also full of colorful characters, doesn’t really have a place carved out for Lurk.

Lurk knows that he is much different from the patrons of his town, but he can’t wrap his mind around why that drives them away from him. He wishes them no harm, but rather he wishes to understand them, and be understood and accepted in return so that he doesn’t have to spend his life as the perpetual outcast, banished to the village perimeters.

Lurk is immortalized as a misunderstood creature in this painting, but perhaps he went on to find like minded individuals to share his abundant experiences with, just as our artist did.

Nick has gone on to collect his own tribe of strange and unusual people to join him in his adventures, and he has cultivated his own place in this world, but he hangs on to this original painting as a reminder of one of the driving forces to pursue his art and his unique way of life. There is a part of Nick’s childhood eternally trapped in this painting with Lurk, serving as a valuable reminder to him and all of us that we are never truly alone.