Carlie Todoro-Rickus

Carlie Todoro-Rickus is a visual artist working in light, creating light sculptures, environments, and installations. She has a BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in sculpture and an MA in Performance Studies from the University at Buffalo. Her early use of light in metal sculpture led her to explore the light itself as the sculpture medium and as a tangible partner to dancers and machines in experimental performance pieces. Influenced by artists Anthony McCall, Kris Verdonck, Robert Wilson, and others, she pursued a master’s degree that was based in art practice as research. Her work is often interactive, influenced by her work in the field of arts in medicine. Carlie has been an Artist in Residence at Oishei Children’s Hospital and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center since 2009. She engages patients and their families in the creative process for relaxation, self-actualization, and pain management using a flow state of creativity first described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. She also collaborates regularly with dancer/choreographer Cynthia Pegado and her Art Moves Me Parkinson’s dance group.

Carlie collaborates often with partner, John Rickus, through their company Eclectric Oil and Light.

Bio courtesy of the artist