Jamaican-American Artist's Work Ironically Reflects Themes Of Death By Felicia Persaud New York, October 2001: Since the kamikaze attack on September 11th snatched the life of his friend and artist Michael Rolando Richards, designer Roger Gary says he has spent many days reflecting, not only on Richards's life, but also on at least two of the pieces his friend sculpted. And with each passing day, Gary says he cannot help but feel as if Mike, as he was affectionately called, had a premonition he was going to be struck down suddenly and brutally. One of the pieces Gary speaks so eloquently of is a life-size self-portrait, casted and sclupted by Richards in bronze. In the piece, the Jamaican-American artist and sculptor fashions himself in the garb of a Tuskegee airman facing down a barrage of planes, all of which are piercing his body. The other piece is perhaps the most recent titled "Fallen Angel" and according to Gary, shows the upper torso of Richards wearing two angel wings. Eerily enough, one of the wings is broken. It was displayed flat on the floor. Whether Richards, 38, had some sort of intuition of how he was going to die, or whether, like many artists, he was simply fascinated with the themes of life and death, is certainly something his friend still ponders.But one thing is certain ­ at least from conversations with both Gary and Richards' former fiancée Christie Dinham ­ that Richards loved life and the good things of life. "He loved music and food and he loved to dance," reminisced Gary in an interview on Monday. "He even incorporated music into his art work. And even in the studio, music was always playing as he worked." Dinham remembered Richards for his smile, warmth and confidence. "He was so full of life. He touched everyone he met and was forever, ever, smiling," said Dinham. "We're all left without a beautiful soul but (at least) we have beautiful memories." She added that Richards' "essence" is so strong and the loss so great that "he now comes into her dreams" and sometimes when "I walk I think I see him behind me." Richards was one of the artists who had received a six-month grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to work on a project out of space on the 92-floor of the World Trade Center. Gary says Richards told him on Monday, September 10th, that he was sleeping over at the studio in order to meet his deadline because his commute to his home in Rosedale, Queens was time-consuming. "When the first plane hit, I saw it on TV and hoped he had left for his job," said Gary, explaining that Richards worked at the Bronx Museum from 10 am on mornings as an art handler. But Richards never made it. Friends presume he was probably getting ready to leave the tower at 8:45 am when the first plane struck. His body was later identified on September 17th. A memorial service was held on Sunday September 23rd in southeast Queens. Both friends and relatives remembered Richards at the service in words, songs and poetry. His body was returned to Jamaica for burial beside his mother on September 29th. At the Studio Museum in Harlem, where some of his pieces were on display, people reportedly watched slides of his work in the days following his death. His work is also on display at the Miami Museum, where he had interned, as well as at park in California and Long Island City, New York. The Brooklyn-born artist had also done exhibitions of his work in Switzerland as well as in Miami, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Richards was born to a Jamaican father and a Costa Rican mother on August 2, 1963. As a young student, his parents felt he should connect with his heritage, so he was sent to school in Jamaica. He graduated with honors from Excelsior High School in that Caribbean island, and returned to New York to pursue a college education. In 1985, he graduated with honors from Queens College and went on to New York University to pursue a Master's degree in the Arts. Following his studies, he actively began pursuing his passion and soon became highly recognized as a great artist and sculptor. He was honored many times for his work, which according to Gary, is very intellectual and inspiring. So inspiring was it, that at one of his exhibitions, Paige Turner, an assistant curator of exhibitions, wrote: "Michael Richards mimes folklore, popular culture and African-American history for the visual vocabulary used in his large, bonded bronze sculpture and drawings, focusing on themes of assimilation and transcendence in the context of the black experience." The most recent honor Richards received was from The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. He is survived by his father Fred Richards, brother Errol Richards, sisters Faye Henry and Maxine Findlay, and dozens of relatives and friends who will miss him dearly.