Richard Garriott Stejskal

Richard Garriott Stejskal



Biography:
Richard Garriott-Stejskal was born in Annicortes, Washington, in 1944, but grew up in Omaha Nebraska, where his father moved the family after returning from World War II. After receiving his BFA in Sculpture from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, he worked for a short time in a media center for the Omaha public schools, and then briefly with an Architectural sculptor. Later, while in graduate school at the University of New Mexico, he worked at a local Veteran's medical center; he decided to finish his MA, feeling "that the only thing [an] MFA...was good for was teaching in a university...." It was 1970,and Garriott-Stejskal says that at the time there were no programs or organizations for art therapy, "so I invented my own version of it." He became the first registered art therapist in New Mexico and worked at the Veteran's Administration for 25 years, all the while pursuing and exhibiting his artwork. After taking early retirement in 1995, he began working part-time as Gallery Director for Very Special Arts Gallery and was the staff trainer for the Enabled Arts Center for Very Special Arts New Mexico. He has been "rearranging" his life since last May, he says, so that he can focus on creating artwork. Garriott-Stejskal is currently preparing for a two person show at Fisher Gallery in Albuquerque, scheduled for May of this year.