Rebecca Dearden
I am a process-oriented painter who creates abstract, figurative pieces. I seldom approach a piece with a concept in mind but rather use an alternative mark-making system that involves painting a subject on separate paper then stamping it onto my canvas or chosen surface. Through this method, the subjects become reversed and altered from my original vision. I enjoy mimicking the organic shapes that form from a process that feels slightly out of my control. I let the work unfold before me and allow the process to inform me as I go.
My work focuses on gesture and movement. The abstract figures in my pieces are not fully rendered; they are intentionally ambiguous in gender and other identifiers. By excluding context from my subjects, my paintings strive to emphasize the spirit of the gesture or essence of an emotion through exaggerated mark-making and bold color choices. The figures often blend together and exist in vague spaces absent of perspective and a sense of place or time. My goal is for a viewer to return to a piece and discover something new each time- perhaps as their mind searches for figures where figures were never intended to be.
