Rebecca is an artist and muralist living in Northern California. Her paintings explore the overlap of internal and external spaces. Incorporating multiple mediums as a means to expand the picture plane, she creates paintings that suggest glimpses into invisible realms, metaphysical realities and internal landscapes. Rebecca earned her BA Degree in Painting at San Francisco State University in 2005, and received her MFA in 2010 from The California College of the Arts. She currently teaches art classes at Mendocino Junior College.
Why do I love to look at and paint the ocean? I think oftentimes, we as people might look up to the sky, let's say for hope or prayer or celebration, but when we stare out at the vastness of the ocean, it is for something else. In Rachel Pollack’s book, Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom, A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness, she writes ”Metaphysically the sea has always evoked in people a sense of vastness and mystery of the universe.” Indeed that is true, but it is also more than that. Carl Jung spoke of water as symbolic of our consciousness. For me it seems, to look at the ocean is to look outward and inward simultaneously. To stare out at the horizon, I am in awe of the ocean's magnitude, but the constant shifting of the waves, mirrors the flux of life itself, the ever changing nature of being alive. In this instance there is an awareness of multiple realities, the outer world we see with our eyes and the invisible realms we know with our bodies and see with our minds.
The paradox of overlap, of both internal and external realms is what inspires my work. I am interested in creating paintings that depict multidimensional realities. I use woven canvas, embroidery thread, molding paste and paint to build out these liminal spaces. Precious metals evoke ideas of alchemy, transformation and medieval religious paintings. I am intrigued by the uncertain transitions that occur between the various mediums and the way that they relate to larger concepts. Through these paintings I contemplate the precarious experience of being alive, of being intertwined with our past at the same time as our future. I explore the tension between certainty and uncertainty, creating spaces that bear witness to all of life’s mystery, magic, sadness and beauty.
Why do I love to look at and paint the ocean? I think oftentimes, we as people might look up to the sky, let's say for hope or prayer or celebration, but when we stare out at the vastness of the ocean, it is for something else. In Rachel Pollack’s book, Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom, A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness, she writes ”Metaphysically the sea has always evoked in people a sense of vastness and mystery of the universe.” Indeed that is true, but it is also more than that. Carl Jung spoke of water as symbolic of our consciousness. For me it seems, to look at the ocean is to look outward and inward simultaneously. To stare out at the horizon, I am in awe of the ocean's magnitude, but the constant shifting of the waves, mirrors the flux of life itself, the ever changing nature of being alive. In this instance there is an awareness of multiple realities, the outer world we see with our eyes and the invisible realms we know with our bodies and see with our minds.
The paradox of overlap, of both internal and external realms is what inspires my work. I am interested in creating paintings that depict multidimensional realities. I use woven canvas, embroidery thread, molding paste and paint to build out these liminal spaces. Precious metals evoke ideas of alchemy, transformation and medieval religious paintings. I am intrigued by the uncertain transitions that occur between the various mediums and the way that they relate to larger concepts. Through these paintings I contemplate the precarious experience of being alive, of being intertwined with our past at the same time as our future. I explore the tension between certainty and uncertainty, creating spaces that bear witness to all of life’s mystery, magic, sadness and beauty.