EARTHDUST
they/them/theirs pronouns
EarthDust aka Ricky Gaunt is a multimedia artist currently based out of San Diego, CA.
These days they spend most of their creative energy as a tattoo artist at Pixley’s Oddities. You can book a tattoo with them here. Outside of tattooing, they have a strong passion for painting and drawing. Those are their predominant mediums, but they also love writing, photography, dance, music, cooking, and skating. Any opportunity to be creative is taken.
Background:
They have been making art since they were a kid, thanks to their creative and encouraging family. Their Dad is an architect, Mom is an art teacher, older brother a cinematographer, and younger brother a skateboarder and chef. So it clearly runs in their blood. When Ricky was in elementary school they enjoyed drawing characters and outfits and making up stories about them. They thought they were gonna be a fashion designer. That dream died in high school when they learned how much they hate the fast fashion industry as well as measuring. During the summer after sophomore year of high school, Ricky attended Montserrat College of Art’s Pre-college program, where they studied graphic design and painting, and afterwards decided they would continue to pursue art diligently. They started looking at the world through the lens of turning each moment into a painting. They were hooked. They proceeded to push themself as much as they could within a public school setting where nearly no one else was passionate about art. After graduating high school in Wethersfield, CT, in 2018, they studied for 2 years at Pratt Institute (luckily with the help of scholarships) and dove into a completely different world. They learned and grew exponentially because of that time. Not only because of school, but also their friends, and NYC in general. They dropped out because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and decided to spontaneously go on a road trip, which ultimately led them to San Diego. The trip was eye-opening in a lot of ways, and they are very grateful to have had the opportunity to see so much of the beauty and expansiveness of the lands in this country. San Diego unexpectedly anchored their buzzing spirit, and they’ve been living there for 5 years now, and are completely enchanted by the nature as well as their community. They started learning about tattooing in 2021, thanks to their first mentor, Bella, and then started tattooing professionally in January 2024.
About Their Work:
Most of their work has abstract qualities to it, if not entirely abstract. EarthDust views abstraction as the presence of feelings and questions. The embodiment of time passing and things forgotten.
They continue to explore different mediums, styles, and subject matters as they evolve as an artist and person. They enjoy collaborating with other artists and making work that connects people to one another and to this earth.
They are still navigating how to make time for painting and passion projects while being a full time tattoo artist.
Current Themes:
Fractals- or repeating patterns in nature. They are fascinated by how everything in this reality mirrors its environment and can be broke down into small repeating shapes.
Water – the shapes it makes, how it connects us all, how are bodies are about 60% made up of it.
Native plants –
Intentions:
EarthDust intends to use their creative abilities to spread peace, love, equity and truth.
AWARENESS OF THY SELF. FREEDOM TO FLOW.
They hope to expand the standard notions of beauty, gender, sexuality and “normalcy” to become more inclusive and fluid. Abolish the binary!!
They strive to normalize discussions about mental illness in hopes that people will help each other heal. Vulnerability is real power!
F*CK racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. F*ck all bigotry. Fight facism everywhere every day.
Abolish ICE, Abolish the police, Abolish prisons!
F*ck AI.
F*CK the concept of trash. Every day is Earth Day.
EARTHDUST 