home
blog

 

 

 

 

 

Laura Aguilar

Luis Alfaro

Don Bachardy

Ben Cuevas

D'Lo

Vaginal Davis

Tony De Carlo

Alison De La Cruz

Anthony Friedkin

Olga Garcia-Echeverria

Rudi Gerneich

Ken Gonzales-Day

Susan "Phranc" Gottlieb

Aurora Guerrero

Robert "Cyclona" Legorreta

Catherine Lord

Guglio "Gronk" Nicandro

Roy Rogers Oldenkamp

Monica Palacios

Antonio Rael

Julio Salgado

Terisa Siagatonu

Joey Terrill

Ryan Trecartin

Roy Rogers Oldenkamp

  • Artist Roy Rogers Oldenkamp
  • Roy's Art
  • Roy's Interview
  • Contributor Christopher Jonathan Meza

Roy Rogers Oldenkamp is a West Hollywood local activist and artist, and a man that I occasionally run into when I work out at the Hollywood YMCA. Roy was born in Ft. Bragg, NC in 1956. He majored in African art history and minored in photography at the University of Florida. He is a seasoned and talented painter and writer.

Roy contributes to WeHo News and has his own blog that addresses many topics involving critiques, politics, community, art, and everything else you can think of. This is part of the reason I chose to feature him this quarter. I believe he's an artist who is both a skilled thinker and socially conscious. I'm certain that his opinions will be both of interest and a resource to the students of this class.

 

Links to Roy’s Pages:

Twitter – https://twitter.com/kilroyrogers

Blog – http://royrogersoldenkamp.wordpress.com/

 

Matters that Roy has brought attention to:

Save LA Chinatown; Stop Walmart (change.org, 2012)

http://www.change.org/petitions/save-l-a-chinatown-stop-walmart?utm_campaign=action_box&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition

STOP UGANDA’S KILL THE GAYS BILL (allout.com, 2012)

http://www.allout.org/en/actions/uganda-now

 

Skylight View with Twin Palms

Artist's thoughts: This was inspired by the view from my loft. It predates the current Anthropomorphic Articulated Vase Series, utilizing some of the same textural depth and line and stroke. It reflects the otherworldly quality of nature in Los Angeles. Nighttime palms lit with neon reflection.

Contributor's thoughts: This depiction of palm trees pays tribute to a ubiquitous symbol in Los Angeles, which is also the city’s botanical icon. The quintessential Hollywood star system film often features a driving sequence with a luxurious car and scores of these famous plants. This piece is an example of the reason I enjoy Roy’s work. He provokes thought about symbols that concern LA residents.

Vintage Art Landscape

Artist's thoughts: Unwittingly, I think this watercolor was a tribute to Warhol, whom I knew and said he actually liked my work!

Contributor's thoughts: This piece is beautiful, but I chose to feature it because it invoked a memory about one of the most eclectic eateries in Los Angeles. I live about half a mile away from a restaurant called ASTROBURGER in West Hollywood, CA. It has always been a local landmark that caters to all tastes from double cheeseburgers, to garden burgers, to salmon burgers. Aside from great food, it's a fantastic place to people watch. It attracts people from all over Los Angeles County. I've met people there from Hollywood, East LA, Santa Monica, and Burbank, even Downey.

Anthropomorphic Articulated Vase Series #22

Artist's thoughts: From the Anthropomorphic Articulate Vase Series, this canvas (#22) reflects a natural progression in my work organically inducing animalistic appropriations of common objects, most often a vase or goblet or bowl. The colors become decorative yet vital in a mid-period Disney fashion, with no influence coming from the post Walt era. In the left corner is dickbird, a phallic folly introduced by #6 and appearing occasionally.

 

From Anthropomorphic Articulated Vase Series

Artist's thoughts: From the Vase Series as well, a diptych in acrylic of large scale. It is meant to evoke nesting, cradling, a vessel. The background is now prominent and part of my only using black gesso from now on both hidden and exposed.

Contributor's thoughts: I particularly enjoy Roy's Vase Series pieces because it's interesting to see how different individuals capture tools through an artistic medium. His use of color creates striking contrast and highlights brushstroke detail.

 

 

 

Interview with Roy Rogers Oldenkamp (November 12, 2012)

 

Q: Why did you move to LA?

A: Escaping evil club business stooges and capos. Time for a change.

 

Q: What are the driving forces behind your painting?

A: I have always drawn, always painted. It’s first nature to me, sometimes almost automatic, never forced.

 

Q: How does LA differ from other places you’ve lived (like your hometown, college town, oversees, etc)?

A: Army brat and have lived all over the world, from Paris to London to Tokyo to Tennessee. LA has all the best: multi-culti 21st century city, great climate, great burgeoning art appreciation, a healthy appreciation of the avant-garde.

 

Q: Do you ever plan on leaving LA? Why, or why not?

A: I may in fact live both here and Paris, where my sister now resides (our mom is French and it’s my first language.)

 

Q: Is there anything significant that you want to point out about your work to spectators?

A: Really, really concentrate when viewing my art. Every line, every brushstroke, every consideration of color and form and dimension and texture is an immediate reflection of my collective and current psyche. Enjoy: be disturbed. Everyone responds differently.

 

Q: What’s been your most rewarding experience as an artist/activist?

A: Having my work in private collections worldwide, and translating the aesthetic into documentary filmmaking, with four docs on the way, two on artists, two on architecture.

 

Q: What’s been your most frightening experience as an artist/activist?

A: It’s all been magic. The closest I’ve come to a fright was having a few canvasses stolen a few years back, which then alters the artist’s catalog raisonne.

This is my first quarter at UCLA and I'm in the B.S. nursing program. My interest is in the field of trauma nursing. In the future I plan to return to UCLA to become a nurse practitioner or enter the doctorate program to teach at the university level. I chose nursing as a profession because it is a career that I will be able to fully invest myself in, while still having time to be with my family. Aside from that, I believe my character caters to the nursing profession.

The word in the portrait above is DE LA PAZ, which in Spanish, translates into “of the peace.” DE LA PAZ is my mother’s maiden name and the reason I chose this word is because, simply put, words can’t describe how important my family is to me. Everything I pursue in life is solely so that I may one day protect and provide for them. I’m certainly a multidimensional character, but my family is definitive of the person I am.

I took this class to gain more knowledge about both art and the LGBT community. I was born and raised in the heart of Hollywood, which has connected me to various parts of Los Angeles culture. However, I've yet to come across many works that are produced by locals. This class will be a great way to connect to local artists and a subset of the LGBT community that still remains somewhat of a mystery to me.