Let’s be honest: even the Ohio art world has a tendency to fall into the realm of the pretentious at times, but if there’s a perfect counter example to this, it’s the work of Rick Borg. Since the late 1970s, the Columbus man has employed a straightforward approach, painting simple subjects in bright colors on old wood boards.

The imagery in Borg’s art is just what meets the eye – if he wants to paint a picture of a zebra, he paints a zebra. If he thinks it should be pink for some reason, pink it will be. Until recently, the artist could be found during Gallery Hop selling his wares on the street corner just outside the Sean Christopher Gallery. A quirky, tall fellow with wild hair and a curious smile, Borg met (614) during the Holiday Hop to discuss the large volume of his work that surrounded us for his debut after moving inside the gallery. His description of the pieces reveals the nuances of his artistic thought process – in this case, a license plate, cut into human form, surrounded by swirls of color, with boats on the periphery.

“There was probably a hole in that piece of wood,” explained Borg. “The story there is that this guy’s yelling for help, and these people are experienced fisherman, and they’re going, ‘Look, that guy got himself stuck in a whirlpool. We gotta save the punk. We oughta let him drown, but we’ll save him.’”

Each piece possesses an imaginative, yet approachable, stream-of-consciousness subtext. One painting of a family, featuring a wife and daughter with shoes for faces, began when he saw a shoe and thought it looked like a baby’s face.

“They’re pretty singular,” said Borg, pondering one of his pieces. “I don’t plan it that way. I used to see big paintings. You might see this huge painting they say is a masterpiece, and they’d go to a certain section and that’d be great in itself. It’s so simple. Most of these are daydreams. I don’t plan them out often. Sometimes I just happen to have paint in my hand. Just like dreaming, you don’t always know what it’s about. You wake up in the morning and say, ‘What was that all about?’ and sometimes you can make sense of it.”

Foregoing the traditional canvas, Borg chooses to execute his work on wood. He explained that the choice was partially informed by his practice of selling the pieces outside. Being a fairly prolific artist, his choice material is easy to store, if not a little heavy. He gravitated toward the non-traditional surface because of its unique character and durability. John McCutcheon, owner of Sean Christopher Gallery, eventually asked him to bring his work indoors for this showing.

“John saw me outside. I got sick of having my work in storage, so I thought I’d bring it outside. A lot of good came from it. I met a lot of people. If they drove by, they might only see my work for a second, but they saw it.”

Rick Borg’s work will be on display at the Sean Christopher Gallery (815 N High St.) during this month’s Gallery Hop (January 7th). For more information and to see more of Borg’s art, visit www.facebook.com/seanchristophergallery.