Rebecca's work will be featured in:
14C   2021
November 12 -14 2021
The Glass Gallery at Mana Contemporary
Jersey City NJ
Please come and enjoy her latest work! 

Artist's Statement


As a child I was utterly captivated by the Wizard of Oz.  However, in adulthood, all that I had thought to be true was swept away like a tornado after I experienced the Broadway play Wicked. It was upon reflection on my childhood version of good and evil that I was inspired to create the painting Duplicity.

Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, without VCR’s and DVD’s, our family anxiously anticipated the annual showing of The Wizard of Oz. Like most families, we all gathered around our tiny black and white television to watch this epic tale. Forty years later I walked out of a Broadway theater spellbound by the manner in which Wicked so successfully flipped the entire concept of good and evil. I now felt compassion for the “wicked” Witch of the West and viewed Dorothy as a spoiled brat.

I began contemplating and reading about our natural inclination to perceive beauty as pleasant, safe and virtuous but unattractiveness as unpleasant, villainous and offensive. And so began my passionate mission to create a meaningful painting that enables the viewer to create a personal narrative.

The viewer’s conclusion of Duplicity is dependent on the connection to the main character’s distracting beauty or menacing allure. The classical use of triangulation in the composition has been utilized to carry the viewer’s eye through the painting with a very intentional timing as the painting unfolds. My intention is that the viewer may experience a new story each time the painting is studied- as many scenarios are possible.

I paint entirely from life. Consequently, everything you see in the painting, with the exception of the monkey, was literally set up in my studio as an elaborate outdoor scene. The window, the shutter, the rusty chandelier and the 140-year old fence helped complete the story. The dog, Shamus, is my little love who was fed treats from my model’s hand. Replacing the red shoe with dog biscuits achieved the “longing” look I was striving for in his expression. I searched for a Jacqueline Kennedy type looking model {the worlds agreed upon version of beauty}. After an exhaustive search I found Danielle. I designed her asymmetric hat and a millinery seamstress brought my vision to reality. With these final touches the stage for Duplicity was set.

All of this occurred before my brush ever hit the canvas for the start of a most enjoyable journey…

 PictureDuplicity, 2015