Mar
2
2022
Rachel Dory
My art explores roadside locations in Texas and across America that stop me in my tracks to take another look, and linger in my memory long after I have left. While creating my work, I seek answers to the unique questions each location presents. In particular I am interested in how each place contributes to the shared visual language that develops over time as we move across the earth and experience lonely places that are familiar to all. Each painting embodies what I saw, heard, smelled, tasted and felt when I was there, and serves as a door through which each viewer experiences their own memories. The ability for myself and others to revisit and experience each location over time is critical to my process, so I note the exact latitude and longitude of the site on the back of each painting. The locations I paint are stumbled upon while en route from one place to another. The unrooted yet soothing feeling of being “in between” is an important component to my work, so I don’t make purposeful trips to find locations; rather, they find me. I carry a sketchbook and camera with me at all times so I am always able to take notes and produce onsite sketches and photographs to refer to later when I sit down in my studio to paint. I know a painting has succeeded when a visitor stops, takes a closer look, and then begins sharing the stories and memories that were awakened by what they saw.