Bio
I felt naked. Leaving a twenty-year career in public relations and moving from Atlanta to Asheville, North Carolina, I left behind everything I thought I was. Stripped of all titles, I felt exposed like the fabled emperor with no clothes.
No longer a partner with Fleishman-Hillard International Communications and general manager of its Southeastern office, no longer a civic leader serving on some of the city’s most prestigious art boards, I was now just Randy Siegel. But who was that?
Discomfort led to introspection, and introspection to insight. A new life purpose and profession emerged: helping professionals stand in their power by becoming the full expression of all they are. The cornerstone of my work became a proprietary process I developed that facilitated self-discovery, which is essential for clarifying personal perspective, true purpose, and professional image.
While I was passionate about my new profession, something was missing; my creative, right-brained self was not being fed. I began to rediscover art.
Artist Statement
I believe the journey to authentic self and God are one in the same, and art can lead to self-discovery. I paint interior landscapes: psychological portraits that some call “postcards from the psyche.” Through art, the many aspects of Self come to light. Most collectors of my work are seekers and include artists, therapists, clergy, and others interested in psychology, sociology, and theology.
I am influenced by the rawness of outsider art and the intimacy of portraiture, which I have collected for more than 40 years. For me, painting is a meditation. Focusing on the process of painting, rather than the final product, I invite my subconscious to guide my hand. One color leads to the next and images emerge, until the painting whispers that it is complete.
I often paint over older paintings. It’s not unusual for three or four paintings to be imbedded in the surface of a single piece. Story builds on story, not unlike the stories of our lives.
In addition to painting, I’ve been exploring photography as a meditation on the beauty of creation—as a way of exploring the extraordinary in the ordinary. By adopting what some call “beginner’s mind,” I am experiencing the visual world in new, exciting, and more conscious ways.
Exhibits
Glynn Visual Arts, Saint Simons Island, Georgia, Solo Show: “Painted Prayers: Prayers During a Pandemic,” November 2020 through January 2021.
Solo Modern Home, Asheville, North Carolina, Solo Show: “Florals,” August 2020 through March 2021.
SoGlo Gallery, Brunswick, Georgia, March 2020 to Present
The Horton Gallery, Brunswick, Georgia, Solo Show: “From the HeART,” March 2020.
North Asheville Library, Asheville, NC, Solo Show: “Thinking Small,” June 2019
Avenue M, Asheville, NC, Solo Show: “Interior Landscapes,” July – August, 2018
Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC), Asheville, NC. Solo Show, July 2017
Pink Dog Creative, River Arts District, Asheville, NC, Solo Show: “In Search of the One,” October 2016
The Junction, River Arts District, Asheville, NC, Solo Show: “Every Day a Little Death,” October, 2014
The Flood Gallery, Asheville, NC, Juried Show: “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” February 2012
310Art, Asheville, NC, “Wild Ones in Wax”, June-July 2011
Grateful Steps Publishing House and Book Store, Asheville, NC, Solo Show: “Reunion: And the Two Shall Become One,” June 2011
Constance Williams Gallery, Asheville, NC, “Encaustic Encave,” April 2011
Man’s Ruin Gallery, Asheville, NC, February 2010 to February 2011
Asheville Arts Council Gallery, Asheville, NC, Juried Show: “One Show; Seven Artists,” January 2010
The Moon Pool Gallery, Hendersonville, NC, November 2009 to April 2010
The FLOOD Gallery, Asheville, NC, Juried Show: “Oh Chaos Show,” August – September 2009
Hendersonville Arts Council, Hendersonville, NC, Juried Show: “Apple Show,” Juried Show, May 2007
Transylvania Arts Council, Brevard, NC, New Artists Show, Spring 2005
Collection
An early adopter, Randy Siegel began collecting folk art in the early 1980s and for the next 20 years amassed one of the country’s most impressive collections of Southern folk and outsider art.
Mr. Siegel’s collection has been featured in Esquire, Good Life, Folk Art, Art Papers, Southern Homes and other publications. Pieces from his collection have been exhibited in The Corcoran’s “Black Folk Art Show in 1982, The New Orleans Museum of Art’s “Passionate Visions of the American South” in 1993, The High Museum of Art in Atlanta’s “Local Heroes: Painting and Sculpture by Sam Doyle” in 2000, and numerous other museums, shows, catalogs and books.
Mr. Siegel says of his collection, “A collection mirrors its collector, and I collect folk and outsider art. Most of the objects I collect are figurative, and many are portraits. All speak of a journey of self-discovery, and each touch an aspect of my hidden self.”