Yurik Riegel was born the younger of two sons from a working class family living in the small coastal town of Half Moon Bay, California. His father would paint on the weekends, and his mother was an avid craftsperson. Art was in his blood. As a child he often sat drawing, making up grand stories of heroes and villains. The art of the movie Star Wars had a strong influence on him in this regard.

He received his first formal art training at Half Moon Bay High School under the teaching of local gallery artist, Barbara Ogario. While there, he gained recognition for his achievement in art and first developed his love of working with the human figure and of symbolism. Though art was his first love, he also spent a great deal of his time away from class doing physical exercise. It was here in the vigorous physical training of running in the school’s Track and Cross Country teams and practicing the martial art of Hapkido, that the seeds of self-improvement first took root.

Yurik attended San Jose State University where he received a degree in Illustration.   At the age of 22, after experiencing a panic attack for the first time, he began to explore the depths of what motivates people to do what they do, why they suffer and the relation of psychology to art.

Upon graduation, he spent a year working, saving up money, and re-teaching himself to draw in a more precise way. He then traveled across the US in search of classical figurative training at the Arts Students League of New York City, under the instruction of Peter Cox, Greg Kreutz, and Michael Burban. It was also in New York, under the rigid constructs of this conservative school, that he began to break from classical realism.

Yurik returned to California a year later, and got accepted into a Gallery in his hometown of Half Moon Bay. In 2001, while living in San Francisco, he was hired by his old inspiration, the Lucas companies, and spent 3 years as a Computer 3D artist working on Star Wars video games. At this time, despite his achievement, he began to be disillusioned with art, his job, and situation; and wondered if there was something more to life. He ceased painting for a time.

It was during this time that Yurik was introduced by a friend to the world of course work, of rave culture, and San Francisco urban tribalism. Yurik dove into the world of transformation with a passion, seeing this as the missing piece to the puzzle of his life. Over the years since he has taken many courses including work with Landmark Education and Arete Center for Excellence; studied many books; worked as a personal coach, and helped found a men’s circle that supports men in living their purpose. In 2003 he started IGNITE SF, a foundation which raises money for the arts in San Francisco. In 2004, he returned to the art world with a mission to transform the world through art.

Yurik’s imagery speaks of the teachings of Werner Erhard, Vic Boranko, David Deada, Tony Robbins, Ekhart Tolle and many others. It also speaks to the growing trend in the world of urban tribalism, spirituality, and global connection. His work has been displayed all over San Francisco and the greater Bay Area.

His oil paintings of surreal and technologically enhanced creatures creating the world they live in, struggling with their attachments to material experience, and or merging in spiritual connection with one another - invoke a sense of wonder and possibility. They are an up-to-the minute reflection of modern man’s struggle to know himself in the Age of Information and Globalization. Yurik still lives in the San Francisco Bay Area near his favorite city, paints, works as a personal coach, studies transformation, and races competitively on a local running team.