On Saturday, February 2nd, there will be an exhibition of paintings by Rachel Rickert in the Main Galleries. The work will be on display through February 24th with a reception for the artist on Saturday, February 2nd from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m.

"The home and other private spaces set the stage for repetitive actions. The closer I look at these routines, the more obscure they become. As a painter, I aim to capture instability within the activity of the figure and within the marks themselves—a state of between. Digesting my intimate world, I break down repeated behaviors; looking closer at domestic spaces; playing with both my attachment and detachment to what surrounds me.

I paint patterns to better understand them, yet with each study, they become less tangible. Undressing is the same every day, but when I obsess over the actions in this ritual, the image becomes unfamiliar as the body is contorted, shifting and shimmying. Suddenly what was so automatic becomes claustrophobic, what is ordinary is awkward, desperate, violent, and ridiculous. Figures appear trapped or enclosed by their own routine surroundings.

Currently, I am absorbing bourgeoning domestic patterns and discrete moments of my new life. Watching, and being watched. I am thinking about distance within intimacy, giving up of solitude, holding something so close it hurts.

The process of painting becomes part of the final image, as layers of decisions are revealed between firm and final moments. I am interested in an active looking experience for the viewer that mirrors the painting experience, where there is no place to rest. A constant search dominates the spectator and artist, finding solidity, then losing it again— playing between seeing the image and seeing the paint."