Greetings from Bali where Ramadan has concluded after a month of fasting, a return to the villages, Idul Fitri, and then back to work. Bali is Hindu but the Muslim holiday affects everyone.
Indonesia held its third democratic presidential election and it was carried out with great care and organization. There was over 60% participation and Jokowi, the moderate, modern man prevailed by over 5 % against a man with ties to the old dictatorship and with a seriously flawed human rights record. The consensus is that Indonesia is moving forward as a moderate Muslim country and continuing in a democratic direction. Indonesia is a wonderful place to live and work at this time and especially for me because of my Indonesian wife and my growing skill with the language. We live a local life that is rich in many ways.
Below are the things we are doing now. For my wife, Jovita, the export business is the focus and I continue to paint and write as well as organize my large photo archive. The new connection with Novica is very exciting. Thank you for receiving this communication. I hope you will open some of the links below. Ricker
Novica ,in association with National Geographic, is selling my paintings through their global site:
My book, The Painting of My Life, at Amazon: From 8 reviews:
“A well-written funny, painful, and consciousness-raising journey.”
“It reads with the smooth naturalism of listening to a friend tell his story, unadorned but real. Every page is a new surprise.”
“He’s got a marvelous beat to his writing and I couldn’t put the book down.”
“Just brilliant in the way the writing keeps a very simple and familiar feel and at the same time, the reader sees every image bright and clear!”
“The way we were. Fast, forceful, and quick.”
“He is a present day Patrick Leigh Fermor, only with guts and humor. This book is poetry – it reads like a movie.”
“Ricker has a gift of amazing and salient candor, very deep, very intimate, very explicit and disclosing on such very personal themes, all of it utterly unself-conscious, and unapologetic for any of the moments of deviance from the norms that may emerge periodically.
