RAiR | 1975-76

Richard Shaffer

Born in Fresno, California, Richard Shaffer (1947- ) attained his BA in Philosophy at the University of California in Santa Cruz in 1969. He gained a BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in California in 1973 and an MFA in Painting at Stanford University, California, in 1975. A realist painter, Richard’s time in Roswell in the mid ‘70s launched his art career:  “The 'gift of time' in New Mexico led to my sense of future possibility and a full world of travel, exhibitions, and grants opened up, from Fulbright to NEA to Rockefeller.” (Richard Shaffer 2017) Richard painted in Florence, Italy on a Fulbright Fellow scholarship in 1976-77 and returned to Italy in 1983-84 on a Rockefeller Grant as an artist-in residence at the Bellagio Study and Research Center. He eventually returned to Santa Cruz to live and work and has had over a dozen solo exhibitions in the United States and internationally.