RICHARD ISAAC GRIGGS

Hello! I am an artist, musician, and barista based in Nashville, Tennessee.

I started making art in 2016 as an exercise in coping with anxiety and depression. I found that when I’m fully present to what I’m making, following the lines of the human form or experimenting with colors and shapes, I don’t have to spiral into the worry and self criticism that often comes so naturally to me. I love the fast-paced process of using ink and watercolors to transpose my observations. I am always chasing a sense of “flow” in my work, whether that be in the playful exploration of creating or in the wake of a finished piece, as part of the mindfulness art provides is in revisiting it over time.

By day, I work as the finishing specialist at Chromatics, a fine art print and reproduction studio in Nashville, where my studio is located.

• Exhibited at “Murmurations: a Flight through the Configuration of Blackness” with Cë Gallery, Nashville 2024

• Acquired by Nashville Public Library’s Lending Library Program, 2024

• Multiple solo gallery exhibitions at Three Brothers Coffee in 2020, 2021, and 2022

• Participated in east Nashville’s annual Tomato Arts Festival in 2021 and 2023

• Monthly participant in Nashville’s 100 Taylor Arts Market since April 2022

• Illustrated dozens of portrait commissions (Contact me if you’re interested in one!)