PALUL (pronounced Pa-Loo) RIDEOUT I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology with a minor in Chemistry. I've worked in research and clinical labs for over 50 years. However, I have always created art right along with the sciences. I have been teaching ceramics at Shasta College in Redding, California since 1985. My ceramic art has been shown in many galleries and my work is collected nationally and internationally. The subjectivity of art has kept me balanced with the objectivity of science. I guess I’m a fairly even right brain, left brain person. For me ceramics blended art and science in the most perfect way. After college my real education began… the search for meaning and purpose in life. Science founded me in reason and logic, while art gave me the license to feel and express my emotions. I often feel torn by my creative needs and my need for creature comforts. Likewise, I often feel quite satisfied that I have managed to survive by somewhat balancing the two careers of art and science. I consider myself very fortunate. Seeing myself as an outsider might (a contradictory task if there ever was one), I have succeeded in both creativity and comfort. Yet my soul wants more. My eyes have always been my main organs of input. I like to look at things… especially things of nature… landscapes are universal and infinite in variety. Like landscapes, people are also natural subjects with universal qualities. Universal subjects are those that transcend time, languages, and cultures. Anybody, anywhere, anytime will recognize the sun, or a hand, or a heart. They are universal symbols. When the universal elements are added to a work of art, be it ceramics or writing, it automatically reaches the core part of the viewer. I seek to know and express those things that connect us all… the universal. I write to find the answers to the riddles of “Who am I? Who are we? What is our purpose in life?” My best writing is spontaneous… fast, without thinking. Sometimes I feel like someone else is moving my hands. See my website, PALUL.COM, for photos of my art and for additional information.
