Rebecca Campbell knew from early on that her fate
was to be an artist. Growing up in a conservative religious family of nine in Salt Lake City, art was
her way out, so while other kids spent hours in front of the TV after school she devoted her spare time
to creating hundreds of paintings and ink drawings. After years of working hard she walked away from
the University of California with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) to her name and she is now pursuing her
dream – working as artist.
INMYX: What is it that
you are focusing on right now, and how did you get here?
Rebecca Campbell: Right
now in my work I am exploring aspects of memory, nostalgia and time. I’m curious about the fact that
when a person is having a really strong experience of nostalgia, time seems to collapse and the past,
the present and everything in between become one. For example a nostalgic moment for me might be triggered
by a memory of walking through the forest when I was five but that memory then triggers a hundred others
from dancing to “Boys Don’t Cry” while drinking black label beer in the park when I was a teenager,
to cutting lavender for the dinner table yesterday afternoon. Time becomes a circle and it’s both sad
and sweet at the same time.
I am also interested in combining realism
and abstraction to create an experience that interests both the brain and the body. My art always has
an aspect of story-telling in it that appeals to the part of us that responds to language and symbols
but it also always has an abstract aspect created by using huge brush marks or strange materials that
affect people in a visceral way.
INMYX: What is the story
behind the Xanadu series? Who are these
women and what inspired you to do that?
Campbell: I created the Xanadu
Series for my last show at Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art in N.Y.C. in 2006. All of the women are people
in my life: friends and family. I wanted to make a show that combined the substance of real life and
real people with the magic and beauty of fairytales, myth, pop culture and religion. All of these things
are mixed together. It might seem odd that references to an 80s disco movie, a Renaissance Virgin Mary,
a Dick van Dyke classic, a hallucinogenic 16th century poem and the contemporary
urban landscape would be in the same show, but that just the way my brain works.
INMYX:
The paintings look incredible touching and yet distant. Some of the women even have a certain aloofness.
What is the story behind their faces?
Campbell: All of my work comes from a very
personal place but I think it’s important to leave room for people to imagine their own stories too.
When I paint someone I don’t think of it as a portrait. I think of it as a symbolic painting of “a girl”,
or “a woman”. I think this creates openness in the work that allows it to transcend a specific time
and place. I’m also interested in showing dreamlike states. For me dream states are symbolic of the
inward reflection that makes all creative acts possible.
Link:
www.rebeccacampbell.net
