Gina Caruso, who works in marketing and once owned an art licensing business, has admired Riccoboni\u2019s work for a long time and says his \u201cblend of creativity and business acumen is rare in the arts. He follows his intuition and heart when exploring new directions, which has set him apart. His work has contributed to the LGBTQ community by expanding visibility and fostering inclusive storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, that storytelling shifts from the canvas to page as Riccoboni releases his first limited-edition fairy-tale picture book. It incorporates his brightly colored paintings with his words, representing two chapters from a novel that\u2019s still a work in progress.<\/p>\n
The picture book \u2014 which will be launched Nov. 8 at a book-signing event at The Studio Door<\/a> gallery, where he has a studio \u2014 is called \u201cKnights of The Vermillion Rose: A Science Fiction Fairytale of the Gay Romantic Comedy Kind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have always painted portraits,\u201d Riccoboni says, \u201cand people would say, \u2018Oh, is that a lover \u2026 and I\u2019d say no, it\u2019s just a portrait of a friend, but it could be. Then I thought, \u2018I need to make up a story,\u2019 so I started writing fiction stories, and I wasn\u2019t really doing anything with them.\u201d<\/p>\n During the pandemic, he began creating more paintings \u2014 of people, places and things. The more he painted, the more he had the urge to write about them.<\/p>\n \u201cI started painting portraits of people and writing stories to go with it, and then that\u2019s where I got the idea for this about a year ago,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought, wouldn\u2019t it be fun to do a sci-fi story based on some of the paintings that I\u2019ve done?\u201d<\/p>\n So he started writing.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then one day, I went, \u2018Oh my gosh, I have a fairy-tale picture book with all these illustrations. I did it mostly for myself at first, then for the LGBTQ community.\u201d<\/p>\n Riccoboni says he \u201calways loved fairy-tale picture books as a kid. There was something appealing about them.\u201d<\/p>\n But there was also something missing: He never had one for his own community. As a queer artist, Riccoboni always found that disappointing. Many years ago, while strolling through a thrift shop, he did find a queer-centric fairy-tale book titled \u201cFairy Tales.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was this small book, like the ones we had as kids,\u201d he recalls of the book, which put queer characters in traditional fairy tales. \u201cBut someone swiped it at one of my house parties, and that was that. But then I thought, \u2018Well, you know what, what if I created one? You know, I\u2019ve got the creativity, I\u2019ve got the artistry, I\u2019ve got some writing skills.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s how \u201cKnights of The Vermillion Rose\u201d came to be.<\/p>\n Riccoboni doesn\u2019t take himself too seriously, admitting that his science-fiction picture book serves up otherworldly tales that some might find only mildly amusing. It has aliens, spaceships and same-sex couples, including countless representations of the bearded men that figure prominently in many of his gay-themed paintings.<\/p>\n But what his picture book does, though, is present an inclusive story.<\/p>\n \u201cFor my own community,\u201d the 64-year-old Riccoboni says of his book, \u201cI hope they see themselves and they feel more accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n That ethos \u2014 of encouraging inclusivity \u2014 drives most of what Riccoboni does as an artist. In his artwork and his books, his goal is to create a sense of community and belonging, a desire born of an upbringing that often made him feel like he didn\u2019t belong.<\/p>\n As a young artist growing up in Connecticut, he often heard friends and relatives discourage him from pursuing art as a career.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody told me you could never make a living as an artist, but that didn\u2019t make sense because where I lived, there were a lot of very wealthy artists, including Anna Hyatt Huntington<\/a>,\u201d Riccoboni says.<\/p>\n Huntington was an American sculptor known around the world. One of her most prominent works is \u201cEl Cid,\u201d<\/a> located at the entrance to Plaza de Panama in Balboa Park.<\/p>\n \u201cShe did the big statue out in the middle of the park, which is kind of the reason I moved to San Diego,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember walking into the park, and I saw that statue, and I was like, \u2018Oh my God, my grandmother knew her.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n As an out gay man, \u201cyou kind of get squashed down. No, you can\u2019t be that. You can\u2019t be an artist. You can\u2019t do this, you can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Artistically, he felt stifled in Connecticut, so he aimed his sights on California.<\/p>\n Once here, \u201cI did banking. I did human resources.\u201d<\/p>\n But he was miserable. Art proved to be his saving grace.<\/p>\n \u201cI never stopped making my art and going into shows,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Exposure to the work of two artists \u2014 namely David Hockney<\/a> and Keith Haring<\/a> \u2014 was the affirmation he needed that working as an artist, a queer artist even, is not a bad thing.<\/p>\n While on a high school field trip to see the British literature art collection at Yale University<\/a>, a teacher nudged Riccoboni to skip the literature-centric exhibit and instead pop into a nearby gallery to see Hockney\u2019s work.<\/p>\n There, surrounded by Hockney\u2019s queer art, Riccoboni had an epiphany.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up in a religion that told me that something was indeed wrong with me. But I was like, \u2018Wow, there\u2019s nothing wrong with me.\u201d<\/p>\n That a-ha moment \u2014 one that pushed him toward a path of self-discovery and self-acceptance \u2014 has been a prominent theme in Riccoboni\u2019s journey<\/a> as an artist and as a person.<\/p>\n Being his authentic self, Riccoboni says, has brought forth nothing but positive outcomes.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s really interesting as an artist is \u2026 once I started accepting myself and not worrying about what other people thought of me, doors started opening for me because I was being authentic about myself and expressing myself through my work.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s exactly what Haring, the 1980s-era American artist known for animated pop style, gave Riccoboni: a life lesson about expressing his true self.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was at what appeared to be a pop-up on Christopher Street in Manhattan, donating T-shirts with his artwork on them to raise money\u201d for gay causes,\u201d Riccoboni recalls.<\/p>\n Haring was already well-known by then, and the last thing Riccoboni wanted to do was bother a famous artist who appeared to be in a rush. But he wasn\u2019t about to let this fateful moment pass. He said \u201chello\u201d and told Haring that years before, a high school teacher introduced him to Haring\u2019s work.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now, here I am talking to him on Christopher Street,\u201d Riccoboni recalls.<\/p>\n They talked for a bit, and Riccoboni walked away with a practical suggestion from Haring himself: Find your visual voice, something that people will recognize in your work.<\/p>\n Now decades later, Riccoboni hasn\u2019t only found his voice \u2014 visual and otherwise \u2014 but he\u2019s using it to bring attention to causes that mean the most to him.<\/p>\n Somewhat soft-spoken, Riccoboni is hardly timid in his art. Much of his work centers around the LGBTQ community, with colorful pieces capturing snapshots of gay life.<\/p>\n His palette is based on the colors of the rainbow flag, a quiet but forceful commitment to telling the LGBTQ story. Over the years, he\u2019s chronicled pivotal moments in the LGBTQ timeline, from the AIDS crisis to the legalization of gay marriage and everything in between. One of his pieces \u2014 a portrait of Balboa Park\u2019s California Tower adorned with the Pride flag \u2014 hung in the California state capitol during Toni Atkins\u2019 tenure as president pro tempore of the California State Senate. That painting is now hanging at the San Diego History Center and is part of its permanent collection.<\/p>\n San Diegan Nancy Berger has long marveled at the impact of Riccoboni\u2019s work in the community: \u201cRD is a man with a beautiful and ethical moral compass. His art depicts social integrity and passion in\u00a0 supporting the LGBTQ community. He has raised social awareness for many movements expressed in his beautiful art.\u201d<\/p>\n With \u201cKnights of The Vermillion Rose,\u201d Riccoboni is continuing that work, now using his talent to paint more stories, this time with his words.<\/p>\n
![\""Knights](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SUT-L-BOOKS-RICCOBONI-01.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cKnights of The Vermillion Rose: A Science Fiction Fairytale of the Gay Romantic Comedy Kind\u201d by RD Riccoboni (Beacon Artworks Corporation, 2025; 50 pages)<\/p>\n