ARTIST STATEMENT
My work centers around ideas of memory, sentimentality, and longing. It relies on quietness and subtlety of line and color, both conveying a sense of softness. My process, regardless of medium, is often intimate and time consuming, resulting in the sentimentality and memorialization of both objects and people. Both figures and objects combine elements of reality with dreamlike or invented qualities. Often utilizing large areas of negative space, I focus on shapes and forms, emphasizing not only what is there but what is lacking. In turn, feelings of incompleteness and absence are prevalent in the work. I am interested in the push and pull between states of intimacy and inaccessibility. No matter how real something may seem, there are often barriers that prevent us from fully grasping it. A painted figure can have a presence that causes us to recognize desires, but it cannot fulfill them. I am interested in the relationships between ambivalence and desire, and of control and lack thereof.
BIO
Rachael Perisho completed her BFA in Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the spring of 2011. She now lives in Portland, OR.
Contact: rachaelperisho@gmail.com
My work centers around ideas of memory, sentimentality, and longing. It relies on quietness and subtlety of line and color, both conveying a sense of softness. My process, regardless of medium, is often intimate and time consuming, resulting in the sentimentality and memorialization of both objects and people. Both figures and objects combine elements of reality with dreamlike or invented qualities. Often utilizing large areas of negative space, I focus on shapes and forms, emphasizing not only what is there but what is lacking. In turn, feelings of incompleteness and absence are prevalent in the work. I am interested in the push and pull between states of intimacy and inaccessibility. No matter how real something may seem, there are often barriers that prevent us from fully grasping it. A painted figure can have a presence that causes us to recognize desires, but it cannot fulfill them. I am interested in the relationships between ambivalence and desire, and of control and lack thereof.
BIO
Rachael Perisho completed her BFA in Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the spring of 2011. She now lives in Portland, OR.
Contact: rachaelperisho@gmail.com
photo by Emily Van Ness