An artist that I have continuously come
back to throughout the year is Rebecca Campbell for her large-scale
fantasy-like depictions of people. Initially, I was drawn to her work because
of the use of color. Campbell’s streaky brush strokes render kaleidoscopic,
vibrant images that flow with color, whether she is depicting a landscape or a
portrait. She uses vibrant colors, using warm colors in the light, contrasting
them with cool colors as darker tones. By doing so, her work not only gives the
viewer a sense of space and depth, but also a sense of temperature. The world
in which her subjects exist seemingly comes to life because it gives a sense of
warmth or coldness. The images are captivating in that sense, welcoming the
viewer into a completely different world through the use of color and form.
For example, in her work Glow (2013) the
variation in the brush strokes and the background make it seem as though the
landscape does on beyond the horizon, even beyond the canvas. The portrait of
the woman appears to be floating in this chilly land enfolded by the warmth of
the lights around her. This warmth is reflected on her face and her arms.
After having done more research on her
work, I learned that her work reflects the themes of nostalgia, the sentimental,
and the emotional, often tying in imagery and memories from her past, her
family, cultural history, and her own feelings of nostalgia. She presents the
images so that nostalgia may be seen under the light of feminine sublime. About
nostalgia she says:
“When a person acutely experiences
nostalgia, time collapses and the past, the present, and the future become one.
. . Time becomes nonlinear in a space that is both sad and sweet
at the same time. Nostalgia somehow enables us to sing along to the tune of our
own deaths.”
Although her work is visually
appealing, knowing the meaning behind her work makes it so much more powerful.
She paints the feminine figure with such grace and forceful streaks that they
depict beautiful images women while highlighting their strength and power,
fighting against the ideas of female frailty and male supremacy.
Her more recent work is different
than her older work in that it draws on cubism as she draws the female figure,
veiled by blocky moments of opacity achieved by juxtaposing blocks of color
over the image. This work explores the paradoxical relationship between
patriarchal images of beauty and desire, showing the woman, yet concealing her
body with a “teasing veil”.
Rebecca Campbell ties in personal
experiences and her own desires into her work, allowing for beautifully honest depictions
of the workings of her mind.
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