Arts Corner

Arts Corner – Riverside Artswalk – Artist Spotlight: Atom St. George

Contributed by Rachael Dzikonski, Executive Director, Riverside Arts Council

The month of February can sneak up quickly, solidifying our journey into the new year. It is also a month to celebrate love and family while we wait for spring to bring fresh life to the Inland Empire. Riverside Artswalk for the month is always in high spirits preparing for Valentine’s Day and offering unique handmade creations in the spirit of love, from Artists on Main through the local galleries and museums. This month you will not want to miss February’s Artist Spotlight Atom St George exhibiting his solo show at Pain Sugar Gallery, opening on Riverside Artswalk.

Atom St. George is a 39-year-old disabled painter born and raised in Riverside, California. Atom has been creating art since he was 24 years old (shortly after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis) and is currently painting full time, primarily selling to a community of collectors he has developed over the years. Atom is inspired to make art based on the fear of his future with multiple sclerosis and it truly serves as a coping mechanism. He spends nearly every minute that he is awake either painting or doing work around his studio. He understands that there is no time to waste given his progressive disease. As his hands become weaker and more numb each year, it is a race against time to practice and become as skilled as possible while he is still able. Art for him serves as the perfect worry silencer. Atom is wheelchair bound with numb hands along with many other issues from his multiple sclerosis. While he is painting, he feels healthy, and being disabled is the last thing on his mind. Art keeps him positive and seeing the glass as half full.

Atom has had an extensive history of exhibiting his work in Riverside and beyond. He has been a part of The Live Art Music Fest at the Tobacco Lounge, a split exhibition: Pleasant Nightmares, with Parker Winans at Pain Sugar Gallery, and has painted live during many Artswalk events in front of Urge Palette where he has also shown his art – before Pain Sugar Gallery was established. He has also shown at Back to The Grind and was also a featured artist at The Blood Orange Infoshop. Atom has seen a huge benefit of showing his artwork in Riverside which was getting to work and show with Fritz Aragon, the owner of Urge Palette and Pain Sugar Gallery. Fritz has been so supportive of Atom and encouraged his art making ever since they met when he initially showed at The Blood Orange Infoshop. When it comes to the art world, Atom feels that Fritz is an absolute gem of Riverside.

Atom’s goal with his art is to have an internationally recognized painting style and to inspire others who are disabled to attempt art making to ease their mental load. He would be so lost without the ability to escape into a painting, and he wants to inspire others who are suffering with a disability to discover this freedom. Atom has been notably featured in LA Weekly, The Press Enterprise, Hi-Fructose Magazine’s social media, Shoutout LA, Canvas Rebel and more. Atom is currently working on a collaboration with a poet from the UK who also battles multiple sclerosis, with an end goal of creating a book of paintings and poems inspired by their disease that is set to come out in 2025.

For more information about Atom and his artwork, visit @atomstgeorge on IG or FB. For more information on Riverside Artswalk visit www.riversideartswalk.com or @riversideartswalk on IG