{"id":930089,"date":"2026-07-12T15:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/930089\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T15:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:23:16","slug":"for-artist-renee-richetts-art-heals-mind-body-and-soul-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/930089\/","title":{"rendered":"For artist Ren\u00e9e Richetts, art heals mind, body and soul \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sit still on the front porch of Ren\u00e9e Richetts\u2019<\/a> home in Del Dios, a tiny unincorporated community between Escondido and Rancho Santa Fe, and there in the quiet, if you listen, truly listen, you can almost hear her artwork speak.<\/p>\n

All over the porch, hanging from eaves and off the lanky branches of a hibiscus tree, Richetts\u2019 fused glass artworks sway lazily in the warm summer breeze. The small fragments of colorful glass, strung along together, produce soothing sounds, their tinkling notes wafting through the air alongside a chorus of windchimes and the sweet scent of plumeria blooming in the garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I forget, I want to make sure you frame all of this within the context of how art is healing,\u201d Richetts said, while walking a reporter into the home she shares with her wife, Mary Jo Harte, a hospice nurse.\n<\/p>\n

On a recent Thursday morning, Richetts\u2019 artworks, the colorful shards of smooth shiny glass, were indeed speaking the language of healing \u2014 and spreading the gospel Richetts has been preaching for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt \u2014 the art of making it, seeing it, talking about it, hearing about it \u2014 it\u2019s healing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She should know. Just like her spouse of 32 years, Richetts<\/a> worked as a nurse for a long time before retiring in 2023 from Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla, where she specialized in intensive care.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you talk about healing, it\u2019s all sorts of healing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s physical, mental. It\u2019s emotional trauma. It\u2019s everything. I\u2019m not talking out in the woozy woozy, OK? This is so well-documented.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Richetts<\/a>In her yard in Del Dios, Ren\u00e9e Richetts’ work can be seen all over, including fused glasswork hanging from eaves and off tree branches. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nAhead of her time<\/p>\n

Mention Richetts\u2019 name to people around town, and many end up using the same word to describe the 71-year-old: pioneer. It\u2019s taken her a long time to get accustomed to the label, but these days, Richetts will tell you she\u2019s finally comfortable enough to \u201cembrace it.\u201d \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that she doesn\u2019t appreciate being called a pioneer, a trailblazer. It\u2019s just who she is. The Pasadena-born Richetts has lived many lives: nurse, artist, LGBTQ+ activist, feminist. In each of those lives, she always found herself on the fringes, always teetering on the edge, pushing for things that, looking back now, \u201cwere definitely ahead of their time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1993, as a volunteer, she co-founded the Lesbian Health Project at the San Diego Lesbian and Gay Men\u2019s Community Center.<\/a> In that role, she went around town talking about lesbian sex and lesbian health so openly that she made many uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cLesbian health is just the same as women\u2019s health,\u201d she recalled hearing. \u201cWhy are you making an issue where there isn\u2019t one?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet she moved forward, undeterred. Growing up in a Quaker environment back in Pasadena,<\/a> it was ingrained in her to push forward, no matter the odds, for the betterment of everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised in a Quaker setting, went to a Quaker school, and the Quaker faith believes in engaging authority and engaging power in order to make everything better for human beings. And that means, in the United States at least, a lot of political activism. I was making anti-war signs as far as I can remember, and that was art!\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, she\u2019s still fighting for the things that matter to her: LGBTQ+ issues, politics, mental health. Her weapon of choice? Art \u2014 specifically, art that\u2019s a representation of all of her. The nurse. The artist. The activist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all essential to who I am,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of those identities are the sum of me, and the sum of me is greater than the sum of the parts. If a piece were to be removed, I\u2019ll tell you, I would be very, very, very active trying to figure out how to put it back. Like when I broke my arm and I couldn\u2019t do some of the art that I do, did that mean I stopped being an artist? No. Did that mean I stopped making art? No. I figured out a way, with a broken arm, to keep doing art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Richetts<\/a>Artist Ren\u00e9e Richetts has an exhibit on display through July 30 at the Rancho San Diego County Library. Her work, which includes glass pieces, is created in her in-home studio in Del Dios in North County. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nAll in the family<\/p>\n

Art, you can say, is in her genes. Her parents owned a fine art gallery in Pasadena, a particularly artistic suburb east of Los Angeles at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.<\/a> Her Chinese-Irish grandfather served in the Navy, for which he drew health-and-safety cartoons. Later, he would become an animator for Walt Disney. Her mother was a painter and printmaker, while her father was a master woodcarver. It was her father who taught her about three-dimensional art. Some of her siblings dabbled in the performing arts.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a room like this one that children were not allowed to go into,\u201d Richetts said, pointing to her own in-home art studio. \u201cBut there was also a whole other room that was, you know, knock yourselves out, kids, go for it, where there was always art supplies. Anything that we wanted, we got. I\u2019m pretty sure I don\u2019t know anybody that asked for oil paints as a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she considers herself lucky that \u201cwe got space to do it. \u2026 It was so much a part of my childhood. I also realized my parents are artists, so all their friends are creatives, and so when I go to my buddies\u2019 houses \u2026 I did not realize that a house could exist without an art studio. \u2026 It wasn\u2019t until I went to public school in the ninth grade, and I started having public school friends and going to their houses, and I\u2019d kind of look around and ask, \u2018Where\u2019s your art studio?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in high school, she took an aptitude test that identified potential careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at the aptitude test and I saw I had a strong, strong aptitude for nursing, social work and teaching,\u201d Richetts said. \u201cI also had a strong interest in art and wanted to be an artist. I also realized, since I had all these artists in my family, that art is not, especially for a woman, a lucrative career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so at the age of 14, I was already planning my career trajectory with a big focus on how can I be an artist, and that trajectory looked at what combines well with art, so you can have a career where you\u2019re making a living wage and you can have an art career at the same time. So from the beginning, from the get-go, it was always going to be a combination of art and something else.\u201d In her case, it was the career in nursing that gave her the opportunity to pursue art.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that forward-thinking mentality and tenacity that have earned her praise in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see in Ren\u00e9e\u2019s art her pioneering spirit as a long-term activist in our community,\u201d said Bob Lehman, executive director of San Diego Art Matters<\/a>, the region\u2019s largest arts advocacy group. \u201cHer depth of emotion, perseverance and sense of caring flow through the layers of her artwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lehman, who serves on the county arts commission<\/a> with Richetts, added: \u201cI\u2019m fascinated by Ren\u00e9e\u2019s work and how she adds facets to include other disciplines. For example, she created artwork inspired by a book about the internment of Japanese people during WWII which she illuminated with a live reading by the book\u2019s author.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Richetts<\/a>Artist Ren\u00e9e Richetts has an exhibit on display through July 30 at the Rancho San Diego County Library. She specializes in a genre of art known as “artist’s books,” art inspired by books or art in the physical form of a book. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nConnecting through art<\/p>\n

That ability to create artistic bridges cuts to the core of who Richetts is an artist. She specializes in what\u2019s known as \u201cartist\u2019s book,\u201d a genre of art that is inspired by books or is in the physical form of a book. At the Rancho San Diego County Library, a handful of Richetts\u2019 work is on display through July 30 in an exhibition titled \u201cInspired By, III.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

When she bumps into a stranger who asks, \u201cWhat kind of artist are you?,\u201d Richetts said it\u2019s often easier to just describe herself as a mixed-media artist. If they want to know more, she said: \u201cI have this joke where I tell people \u2026 if it can\u2019t run away from me, I\u2019ll put it in my art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her pieces, many of which are three-dimensional, are indeed an eclectic collage of things: bottles, transistors, screws, toys, stickers. She almost exclusively uses repurposed materials, from used electronic parts to scraps of fabric. Her work is part of collections, both private and public, across the globe, including at the University of California San Diego, of which she\u2019s an alumna.<\/p>\n

At 17, she picked UCSD because, she said, \u201cfor about 20 minutes, I thought I really wanted to be a doctor.\u201d While at UCSD, she pursued degrees in linguistics and French literature. After college, she studied art history and architecture in France, and upon returning to the United States, she pursued her nursing degree at Palomar College, graduating in 1982.<\/p>\n

Even though she worked as a nurse full time for decades, it was art that gave her an outlet, an opportunity to express her true self. Art, she said, is what gets her \u201cexcited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt stimulates so many parts of my brain,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s the cognitive part of my brain, the part that likes to solve problems. I\u2019m a mixed-media artist, so I\u2019m all the time having to solve structural problems and material problems and think them through. And then there\u2019s the part that\u2019s right-sided that allows me to express my emotions through my art. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always got another project in the back of my brain, and coming out my fingers and coming out of my heart all the time,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a seven-day-a-week thing. Sometimes I make myself take a day off.\u201d<\/p>\n

On days when she\u2019s not making art, Richetts is talking about it. On July 18, for example, she\u2019s moderating a panel at the Rancho San Diego Library about how \u201cart can foster hope, optimism and emotional healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cArt,\u201d Richetts said, \u201cstimulates different parts of my body. Like, I can feel it. It heals me.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there in the stillness of her front porch, Richetts looked out toward Lake Hodges from her perch high atop Del Dios. She paused, as if to listen, truly listen, to what the breeze was saying on this sunny summer day.<\/p>\n

Then, a wisp of woodland air, followed by a confession or perhaps even a revelation. In the quiet, surrounded by her art, Richetts said without hesitation: \u201cArt, to me, is a form of prayer, a meditation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then she closed her eyes.<\/p>\n

Art discussion and tour of \u201cInspired By, III\u201d<\/p>\n

When:<\/strong> 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, July 18<\/p>\n

Where:<\/strong> Rancho San Diego County Library,\u00a011555 Via Rancho San Diego,\u00a0El Cajon<\/p>\n

Admission:<\/strong> Free<\/p>\n

Phone:\u00a0<\/strong>619-660-5370<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sit still on the front porch of Ren\u00e9e Richetts\u2019 home in Del Dios, a tiny unincorporated community between…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":930090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,20161,21030,171,1370,69395,3549,3550,7264,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5548],"class_list":["post-930089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-east-county","tag-el-cajon","tag-entertainment","tag-latest-headlines","tag-rancho-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-sandiego","tag-things-to-do","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-visual-arts"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116907700892055996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930089","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=930089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}