The work of RT Vegas is complex yet simple. It can be classified in the outsider art genre, but contains many elements of art brut, graffiti, abstract, pop art and cartoon illustration.
RT Vegas...born Arthur Heinzinger-1958 in White Plains, New York. His interest in art started with his first purchase of "Wacky Packs" featuring the art of Norman Saunders. Later he discovered the work of R. Crumb. In High School art class he was drawing a picture of a "double-tongued creature with Jesus protruding through a hole in the cranium " while classmates worked on painting a bowl of fruit. It was here that his teacher showed him the works of Bosch and he met his future art collaborator Jerry Todd. After a stint in the Army he co-founded the rock band THE IMPOSTORS with Pat Kelly in 1978. As was fashionable at the time he changed his name from Arhur Heinzinger to RT Vegas for 'show-biz' purposes. (Kelly and Vegas have played together, off and on, for the past 28 years in different incarnations of this band). He and his friend Jerry Todd started having "Wood Hornet" art work shops where they would drink bottles of dark rum, listen to music and paint on "chunks of wood". These work shops led to Vegas and Todd's' first public showing at the Claude Gallery in Eastchester, New York in 1982. Gallery clientele found his art "disgusting and crude". Over the next 20 plus years RT Vegas' art production was erratic. Three to five year gaps between shows became commonplace. Shows in local art galleries produced few sales. At the start of 2006 RT Vegas began full-time commitment to his Art. He feels inspired due to the wide exposure and positive feedback received via the Internet.
RT Vegas' art is motivated by a curiosity in seeing a final product of work without knowing how it will start. "I am always surprised in the end." There may be an initial spark of an idea but by the end, through free association, something totally different exists. He likes to use heavy cartoon-like lines around his subject matter and usually reserves his backgrounds as a free form abstract area pushing the attention back to the foreground. RT Vegas likes to create art that is symbolic, colorful, crude and fun. He likes working with mixed media and will paint on most anything. His subject matter includes cartoon figures, monsters, tribal folk, animals, mythological beasts and anything else that pops into his mind. In the end RT Vegas gets pleasure and satisfaction when a person he has never met before wants to own one of his works. "All in all I try not to take myself too seriously. I’ve tried that before it didn't work. Enjoy your life while you can."
