Wednesday, 31 January, 2024

Rachel Garrard

Rachel Garrard was born in 1984 in Devon, England, and currently lives between New York and Mexico. She is a dedicated artist working with painting, sculpture, video, installation, and holographic projection. Rachel describes her art as 'a journey in the liminal space between scientific research and esoteric practice.' She employs a symbolic language that connects the internal with the cosmic and universal.

How is your routine?

My morning routine is quite established. I wake up around 6:30 (ideally), drink warm lemon and ginger tea, ice my face, do a series of yogic practices and meditation, then I eat breakfast. After that, I sit down, either in the studio or at a coffee shop, and drink a cortado with my sketchbook for about an hour or so. This is the most important and creative part of my day; I call it coffee sketchbook time, and anyone who knows me well understands how adamant I am about needing to have this time to myself. It is where all of my ideas come together. I go through my notes and sketches from the previous days or months and map out new work. My afternoons vary a lot. If I am working on paintings, I will be painting periodically through the day; otherwise, I will be working on other things.

How do you find identity in art?

Perhaps the aim of an artist's life, like everyone's, is to explore who they are in a broader, more metaphysical sense. An artist is able to translate their experiences and visions into a work that can have a more abstract interpretation than the written word. For me, it is a way to express and identify with a larger form of myself.

Are there any books you recommend to expand our thoughts and ways of communication?

A couple of books that have made an impact on me are:

Michael Talbot - The Holographic Universe,

R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz - The Temple in Man

Beyond Death - Stanislav and Christina Grof

Any advice to artists trying to find their way?

I would say treat art like a practice; I think consistency is key. Let things build up slowly. Try to sit down every day with your work, even if you can only spare 10 minutes to contemplate it, but I think a big part of it is carving out space to receive new ideas. Try out lots of ways of working, experiment, play, don’t pigeonhole yourself too quickly. An art career is a marathon, not a sprint; it develops over a lifetime. Don’t worry if things don’t happen immediately; stay true to yourself, stay honest, be courageous, and just follow the ideas that stir you, however strange they seem; they usually lead somewhere interesting.

Also, don’t take other people’s opinions too seriously. When you are starting out, the work might not look like anything, but it has a seed of potential in it; trust yourself. Whether or not you like the way it is going is the only validation you need.

Top inspiring musicians/artists?

I have always loved music. In another life, I would like to have been PJ Harvey. I listen to music 24/7 in the studio, and my playlist is constantly changing. A few recent favorites are Flora Cash and Nick Murphy.

As for artists, there are so many, but recently I have been enjoying the work of :

Katherine Bradford

Shota Nakamura

Solange Pessoa

Nicolas Party

Simone Leigh

How did you manage to go beyond the limits of imagination?

The way in which art works come to me varies, but it usually starts off with a trace, with a faint scent that I have to follow. It comes as an essence, as a tone, tingling feeling, or a familiar but unknown sensation; I know it, but I can’t see it yet. Sometimes it comes more completely, as a fully formed image or idea. But always there is a mystery to it, something more I have to discover through it.

A picture of one of your first pieces of art?

This is not one of my first pieces of art; I have been making art since I was a toddler, but I don’t have any images of those. This is perhaps one of the first projects I was happy with. It is a 3-D video animation projected as a hologram onto a stage, in which I perform. The animation is built from pencil drawings, starting from a single point, expanding to a sphere, dividing into a multitude of geometries based on the human body's proportions, and returning back to a point. Seven Transmutations, 2011, holographic projection, and performance.

A picture of a new piece of art you have made?

Here is a painting I just finished. Separation, 2023, rock powder pigment on linen, 32 x 26 inches.

thank you for reading! love u