The circles and spheres, that first appear in the mid-1950s in works like Harlequin and Flag-Waving Machine, return in the space churn sculptures of the 1960s and 1970s, in the Annular Eclipse sculptures of the 1990s, and, finally, as painted, pivoting circles in the early 2000s.
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Nature never left Rickey’s work. Although he focused on movement itself in the early 1960s, starting with lines alone and in groups, then going on to other simple geometric forms to explore different movements, he continued to come back to “vine” ideas where nature can be seen as a direct catalyst for sculptural ideas or “so many elements you can’t count them” works, like Nuages or Crucifera.
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After his initial Calderesque explorations, he never abandoned any idea useful to exploring some form of movement in his works that span a fifty-plus year career as sculptor.