{"id":65859,"date":"2025-07-14T21:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T21:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/65859\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T21:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T21:18:11","slug":"renee-richetts-artist-reader-nurse-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/65859\/","title":{"rendered":"Ren\u00e9e Richetts: artist, reader, nurse, activist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Ren\u00e9e Richetts in front of her key piece, \u201c63 Nos,\u201d in her summer art show at the Rancho San Diego library. (Photo by Gabrielle Wallace\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

Ren\u00e9e Richetts paints with a broad brush when it comes to her mixed media art and the hours of reading, researching and creating she puts into her work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Richetts is best known as a book artist, though she\u2019s also a San Diego County Arts and Culture Commissioner<\/a> and a registered nurse. She\u2019s an avid reader who researches her books thoroughly before diving into her own creations based on the stories. She fills her pages with key details from the story and works her friends and family into the narrative when applicable. Her creations use a little bit of everything, too. <\/p>\n

Literally.<\/p>\n

From canvas, cardboard, and paper to fused glass, clay and a myriad of recycled materials like Nespresso pods, computer chips, COVID masks or Comic-Con bags, Richetts uses all kinds of materials that many might not see as conventional artistic instruments. She takes her mixed-media title quite seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200b\u200bI mean, it\u2019s easier to say what\u2019s not recycled than what is, because if I can recycle, I will,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And not only does she recycle materials, but she also repurposes items. To her, there\u2019s a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a distinction for me \u2014 repurposing is that it was made for one thing, but you use it for something else. Recycle means it\u2019s going to electronic trash, or it\u2019s going to the landfill. I\u2019m keeping it from that supply chain, and I\u2019m moving it into art,\u201d Richetts said.<\/p>\n

Currently, Richetts\u2019 repurposed and recycled work is on display at the Rancho San Diego County Library<\/a>. The two-month-long show will run until July 30. Most of the pieces are for sale, though several will be added to Richetts\u2019 collection. <\/p>\n

The key piece in the summer art show is \u201c63 Nos,\u201d inspired by \u201cBeyond the Betrayal<\/a>,\u201d the memoir of a World War II Japanese-American draft resister. All of Richetts\u2019 book art carries its own name in addition to the title of the book that inspired it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Richetts flips through the pages of her key piece of art for her summer show. \u201c63 Nos\u201d tells the story of a World War II American-Japanese draft resister. (Photo by Gabrielle Wallace\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

The \u201c63 Nos\u201d piece is one of her many works about resistance, race and discrimination.<\/p>\n

She said she scrapped about half the show last year in a post-election pivot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started seeking out books to read that had to do with resistance, to see if there were any that were inspiring to me. And there were plenty,\u201d Richetts said about finding a new theme for the show.<\/p>\n

Richetts planned a large portion of the current show in advance, but decided to go another direction in response to worldly happenings. She continues to think ahead, tentatively basing her theme for next year on \u201ccoming together.\u201d The theme could change in the blink of an eye, though. She always knows what inspires her, but she doesn\u2019t always know if it\u2019s right for that moment in time. <\/p>\n

The current political climate is a major influence on Richetts\u2019 work, although she is no stranger to navigating tense political climates either. She was a lesbian health care advocate in the late 1980s and early 1990s, at a time when lesbian health conversations were seen as taboo, and ran the Lesbian Health Project<\/a> and the Lesbian Health Fair<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Because of her work with lesbian health, Richetts was a community service honoree in the 1994 San Diego Pride parade. Tony Atkins and Christine Kehoe joined her that year as the other community service honorees.<\/p>\n

Richetts had a leg up when it came to advocating for lesbian health \u2014 she herself is a registered nurse. Richetts decided nursing was the best option for her because she got to help people, keep a flexible schedule and bring in a steady income.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said it took time away from her art, but she still found time to create. Once she stopped nursing full-time, she was able to devote herself more to art. The year after she stepped back from nursing, she booked more shows than ever and created more pieces, she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ren\u00e9e Richetts created a book mobile based on WonderCon, encouraging young children to play with and interact with the art piece. (Photo by Gabrielle Wallace\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

Creativity ran in the family, but Richetts found her love for comics all on her own. When she was young, she had a hard time learning to read due to problems with her eyes. She fell behind in reading until she found comics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Going into third grade, she jumped to a fifth-grade reading level, and by the end of that school year, she said she was testing in at an eighth-grade level. \u201cAnd it was comics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To highlight her love for comics, and in the month that hosts ComicCon, Richetts is teaching others how to make their very own comic book at the Rancho San Diego County Library. On July 29, for one hour and one hour only, Richetts will guide attendees to create their own story \u2014 even if the drawings aren\u2019t great.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHere is what comics are about, they\u2019re about telling a story \u2014 so let\u2019s get moving on that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ren\u00e9e Richetts in front of her key piece, \u201c63 Nos,\u201d in her summer art show at the Rancho…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":65860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1037,1582,276,5603,46743,11603,46744,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-65859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-art","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-lgbtq","13":"tag-mixed-media-art","14":"tag-queer","15":"tag-renee-richetts","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114853675233446151","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}