BIO

Rebekah Potter is a mixed media artist who works primarily with paint and textiles, vacillating between two and three dimensional works, and often landing in-between at 2.5D. Metaphorical themes based on the relationship between patterns and shapes and our inner and outer bodies serve as primary spring boards for her explorations. The body itself as a landscape is often merged with those of the natural and subliminal worlds, where curious exploration, connection and touch are revered activities from which Potter believes many a modern issue can be resolved. She has shown at the Mississippi Museum of Art, The New Mexico Museum of Art as well as galleries around the USA. Her most recent of many dwelling sites is in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Statement for New Textile Work

My current practice addresses issues of dimension, material, touch and physicality. For years now most of my work has attempted to note and document minor incremental spaces and dimensions that exist between the two and three-dimensional planes. These minor increments are typically areas inhabited and defined as bas relief. By working off a two-dimensional plane the work is then slightly pulled and pushed toward the third dimension or vice-versa. Fabric is a flexible material by nature and lends itself to a particular “ebb and flow” in many areas, whether that be dimension, degree of softness, attitude or purpose.

Claus Oldenberg wrote of his soft sculptures made of fabric, “It is about touch and our need to be touched.” This is a fundamental attribute of being human and a fundamental aim of my work. Often a viewer will grab a piece and realize they “should not” be. This desire to touch is innately placed in each of us and is a valuable conduit for connection, one that I wish to insight through my textile pieces.

“Physicality” serves as an umbrella under which many of the ideas for this work derives. These range from issues of sexuality and vulnerability, to our treatment of the physical and emotional “self” versus our treatment of the earth. By combining the use of fabric with shapes that tempt us to poke, pull and prod, it is intended that the viewer will be more fully engaged, their curiosity awakened, their “selves” further explored.

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” 

-Cecil Beaton

Circa 2005

Perhaps this quote from Cecil Beaton is the underlying pulse in my life. The energy that exists in daring to attempt what seems extraordinary to you . Each person’s idea of “extraordinary” will differ, but so long as one is striving and passionate, thinking and seeing, challenging and risking I believe there is a dynamic sort of velocity , there is growth and there is enlightenment. It is the place where push and pull meet that a sort of magic occurs. In my work I often feel this spark, this sense of life, when I use opposing or contrasting elements. For example, the intuitive in contrast with formal design elements, or playing with the addition of material versus the subtraction of another.

I believe this instant , where contrasting components intersect, is creation, the life force and to some, where god lies.

It’s been said that to make worthy art you have to lead a worthy life. So what you create isn’t just a product that goes on a wall,  “art” could very well be HOW YOU LEAD YOUR LIFE. For example, are you authentic and honest or someone who lives blindly and never asks a question? For myself this not only means creating a variety of work and attempting to stay fresh with my ideas but it also means bringing that creativity and energy to a community. It means encouraging and supporting others, it means speaking up and stepping out, it means really attempting to be myself in all aspects of my life. 

In leading a life that is challenging and daring I have come to believe that energy and inspiration will translate through me and in to my work. That I merely serve as a conduit.  I truly believe that there is something larger than my own singular will and wishings, and there are universal dreams and needs that connect us all. The artist’s role then is to attempt to bring things forth for others so that they may see, be inspired, think, react.  To build a bridge, forge a connection.

We are all on the planet to learn and enjoy the experience. I don’t think we are here to merely work a job and suffer. My hope is that in living my life honestly and creating work with a similar intent, I might shine some light for another person to be “real” and themselves.  Every person is creative in some fashion and it is that which adds color and life to living. Art then serves as a viable and important aspect to all culture and to every single person’s life.