New Archive:
September 2000 Issue, Volume 2
Culture Vulture: A Visit To A Young Painter's Studio
By Aviya Kushner
Weinstein has shown work at MPG Gallery in Boston and Bowery Gallery in
New York City. She recently participated in Somerville Open Studios, and will
be returning to school this month for an MFA in painting at the
University of Washington in Seattle. Aviya Kushner spoke with Weinstein just
after Open Studios:
RW: Two years ago, I saw a cluster of small Etruscan vessels in a museum in
Rome. I sketched them and couldn't stop thinking about them. They all seemed
to be talking to each other. Now, I'll look at any vessel and like it.
CV: What is it about vessels that makes them so interesting to you?
RW: I like their forms. I made the ones I've been painting by hand. I like
their imperfections, and I like the wiggliness. They're not perfect and have
more character...they seem to bend. Especially if you take a group of them,
they lean toward each other or away from each other and have some
relationship to one another.
RW: I think I often work on both together. They inform each other and feed
each other. I'm finding that I really like big paintings, because the vessels
I'm painting are so small. It's a challenge to see how big I can make them
and still get them to feel right. There's room for you in them. With the
small ones, you're kind of at an arm's length.
CV: I know you've spent several months in Italy. Why is the Italian landscape
so attractive to painters? And why is it attractive to you?
CV: Do you have a favorite painter?
RW: Morandi is the painter I've been looking at the most for the longest
time. He also painted landscapes and still lifes, mostly of vessels--small
paintings, very quiet, muted colors. I think he shows you how much you can do
with a few things, with a few bottles. I think when you limit yourself, you
open yourself up to new possibilities, because you're forced to look in a new
way.
Rachael Weinstein can be reached at rachaelw@concentric.net, and her
paintings can be seen at http://www.concentric.net/~rachaelw.
A dozen Italian landscapes, a large group of "vessel" paintings, and a
series of green graveyard scenes line the walls of young painter Rachael
Weinstein's sun-filled studio. On the floor lie glass jars filled with
brushes, empty jars, sketch pads, art books, and an easel. There's also a
dresser topped by a group of cups and other "vessels." This is obviously a
place where a lot of work gets done.
CV: You've been working on a series of still-life paintings of various
vessels. When did you first get interested in vessels?
CV: The vessels range in size from 12x12 to 52x54. How do you decide whether
to work on a big or small painting?
RW: I think it's the light--it's so different from the way it is in
America. The rolling hills feel very good to me. I felt enveloped by the
landscape, and protected by it.
Aviya Kushner is the Contributing Editor in Poetry for BarnesandNoble.com. A
poet and journalist, her writing on art and literature appears worldwide. She
can be reached at AviyaK@aol.com
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