Charlie Rugg showcases the bigger picture with And Also... at SLOMA 

Former LA Galaxy soccer player Charlie Rugg is on a journey.

"Throughout my sports career I remember there being a lot of moments like I felt there was something else for me. ... I was stuck in a process," Rugg said. "We would get on a plane then get on a bus then play the game and then do it again."

The once professional athlete is continuing to reach for that something else, accepting what has long been a part of him—a genuine curiosity about the bigger picture of life and embracing the inner artist he's always wanted to be. That creative expression, as he's discovered, is something that he needs.

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• Photos By Adrian Rosas, Art By Charlie Rugg
• BROADER PERSPECTIVE Both is featured as the main image in Charlie Rugg's And Also... show at SLOMA, as Ruggs feels it best emphasizes his style and intentions as an artist.

"It's true there is a beauty to sports; it's an art form in itself, but throughout that I always felt this desire to do something different afterward," Rugg said. "I was meant for something outside of sports."

That journey plays a significant role in Rugg's work, which is on display at the SLO Museum of Art in his first professional show, And Also... , showcasing his oil paintings until May 29.

From exploring his own search for meaning and the eventual acceptance of his inner artist to using his work to invite people to reflect on their own journeys, Rugg has found peace in using art as a vehicle for his personal evolution and purpose.

"The point I am at right now, where I am on this journey through art, has made me realize this is who I am and who I want to be," he said.

Rugg, who recently moved from Boston to San Luis Obispo, became interested in displaying his work at SLOMA after working alongside the art museum's chief curator, Emma Saperstein, on a mural project at Cal Poly. After SLOMA Curator Courtney Davis visited Rugg's studio, she decided his mixture of abstract details within realistic portraits felt like the perfect choice for the museum's next feature and his first professional showing.

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• Photos By Adrian Rosas, Art By Charlie Rugg
• REAL AND IDEAL American Legend showcases how artist Charlie Rugg melds abstract details and portraiture, blending the figurative and literal to discover a deeper meaning about the person.

"It really is a privilege for the museum to host his first main showcase," Davis said. "Very rarely do we get to see the work of an artist who is not only doing something unique and beautiful but is also new to the community and offers a fresh perspective."

While the work might appear easy to read at first glance, it invites viewers to take in the full picture and notice the subtle abstract details present in each piece.

"This show is all about the complexity of the things we assign meaning to," Rugg said. "We assign meaning to things through stories, building up details based on our experiences with them, and it's something—especially with the pandemic, social media, and even AI art—that we are becoming more and more obsessed with as a society."

For Rugg, And Also... is the vehicle helping him transition his life from soccer to art.

"The challenge I faced in stopping sports is facing that process of de-attaching your identity to soccer," he said. "You spend years going up in the system and playing at higher and higher levels, maybe best case scenario you get to the top and play professional."

But no matter what, an athlete's career eventually comes to an end.

"Some players end their careers and go, 'Almost half of my life, if not more, has been built around this identity,'" Rugg said. "When I stopped playing five years ago, I found myself in this ongoing transition of 'who am I?'"

Rugg's work is similar to his own journey, as he asks viewers to take in the setting of his paintings before focusing on the person he highlights, something that helped him realize his post-professional athlete path.

"When humans are looking at the bigger picture, you try to go out as far as you possibly can, but our human minds can only zoom out and process so far," Rugg said. "When I am painting these characters, I am trying to channel that zone of knowledge and really highlight it with the abstract details."

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• Photos By Adrian Rosas, Art By Charlie Rugg
• THE LITTLE THINGS As part of Charlie Rugg's And Also... exhibit at SLOMA, The Navigator highlights the things one can miss when failing to observe the bigger picture.

Those details are what Rugg hopes people will take away and feel inspired to reflect on the role of a broader perspective on the meaningful things in their lives.

"I really want to channel that sense of 'where do I fit within the world?'" he said. "That's why I want to zoom things out in this broad sense, to figure out what I can find in the bigger picture."

Rugg considers himself to be as much a messenger as an artist, with his work serving as the mode by which others to gain new meaning and find new importance in their lives.

"I really want my work to convey that sense of 'other'—like they come from some other place that understands the world better than we do," Rugg said. "My hope is that these characters, my subjects, can bring us some of those messages from that realm and with it a better understanding of who we are." Δ

Freelancer Adrian Vincent Rosas has a new outlook on the bigger picture of life. Reach him at [email protected].