Richard A. Richards, born in Ogden, Utah in 1959, studied art first as a young boy from his grandfather, a sign painter and self-taught artist, then in secondary school with Robert Call, and at the University of Utah with Paul Davis. He graduated with a degree in philosophy, but pursued a career in ballet, dancing with Pacific Ballet Theatre, Norwegian National Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders and Sacramento Ballet. During this time he was represented by galleries in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Washington D.C., and exhibited paintings through the U.S. State Department’s Arts-in-Embassies program. In 1990 he was appointed Artist-in-Residence at Yosemite National Park. That same year he entered the Ph.D. program in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He received his Ph.D. in 1999, and has since been teaching teaching philosophy at the University of Alabama. He currently resides in Alabama with his wife Rita Snyder, Professor of dance at the University of Alabama.