—artist statement
Rebecca Tolle’s paintings are the result of a variety of materials and ideas coming to contact with one another: a song fragment, a news item, a memory, a glimpse of a landscape. Through thick layers of oil paint and wax blended on canvas and applied liberally with brushes, squeegees and other objects, her work suggests a narrative of worlds in collision, of ideas and stories and colors and visual fragments interacting and
pushing each other, some representational and some not. The results may seem instantly familiar, like a half-remembered Leonard Cohen song, and ultimately invite the opportunity to linger on the details and interactions she depicts.
Paintings start with the zeal of creativity, a need to express my thoughts, and a love of painting. There is a rush, a flow, of getting paint on canvas while being aware of what is happening and not impeding the process.
Inspiration for Rebecca is the “voice” that speaks through the paintings.
A painting is started in the studio then hung up unfinished on the wall of unfinished paintings, waiting for passing meditation. This process leads the direction of letting the painting speak. I walk by and wait. A song will be playing, the country is in turmoil, the pandemic is raging, I walk in the prairie, in the woods, or my thoughts overwhelm me. When we are ready, it becomes clear, the unfinished painting comes off my wall and onto my easel.
The images that are produced sometimes fade into the background and into each other. It is like “seeing thru the painting and glimpsing after images” – much like repetitions in our mind once we have a visual image, it is an interpretation and a perception of our reality being expressed.
Rebecca’s fine art is held in collections throughout Colorado, Texas, Minnesota and Oregon.
” I believe art has to take responsibility but it should not give up being art.” — Anselm Keifer
Published Articles—Fracking and Landfills
