Java.Dec.2.2015

Those are questions she continues to explore in
her upcoming exhibition at Lisa Sette Gallery,
which opens in January. “This show started
out using a gemstone to symbolize the way an
inanimate object could connect different people,
times and places. The stone is a symbol that
could represent shared knowledge, experience
or other ways people can be connected, often
without knowing it. While making the work for
this show, my husband—a kind and wonderful
person—and I filed for divorce, so then the
idea of an inanimate object used to represent
connection took on the idea of both connectedness
and division. Previously, I was thinking about the
stone being something that people shared without
considering the others they may share it with and
having this invisible web connecting disparate
people or events across time and space. Now it
also represents a reminder of a connection that
you have with someone and when that connection
dissolves, a reminder of that loss.”
When Perihelion Arts closed its physical gallery a
few years ago, I approached Duane Smith—then
associate director of the Lisa Sette Gallery—
about representing Bess’ work. Smith had long
admired Rachel’s art and was even a collector;
he saw the fit immediately. Now a program
coordinator at the Boca Raton Museum of
Art, Smith says, “I’m drawn in by the updated
classical painting technique and pulled toward the
very current story Rachel is telling. Getting to live
with her paintings is my admission into a fantasy
of great style and mystery.”
Lisa Sette, with her years of expertise, also saw
the benefits of a union with Rachel. “I suppose
it was her masterful use of the medium—oil
on panel, an extremely old medium used for
portraiture—that first drew me in. That technique
used to create the type of 21st-century characters
that are not a part of my everyday existence
was quite appealing to me.” She adds, “Rachel’s
work has everything that I look for in an artist—
seamless craft that is appropriate to the concept
of what she wants to show us. If she had chosen
photography, for example, to document this type
of today’s youth, I would not have been interested.
It is the melding of classical portraiture with
21st-century characters that makes it interesting.”
Rotting fruit is another subject that Bess has been
painting the last few years, and they’re enthralling
for all the same reasons as her pieces featuring
human subjects. Visually arresting, they send
the senses into overdrive, conjuring scents and
textures. For Rachel, not only does she love the
visceral beauty of these different rotting fruits,
painting them also gives her an opportunity to
use them to parallel the process of human decay
through this different perspective. The new show
will give guests an opportunity to see a variety of
subject matter.
Her talent and style are consistently rewarded.
Bess has been creating and accumulating
serious collectors throughout her career and
has received numerous accolades and awards,
including the 2014 Arlene and Morton Scult
Contemporary Forum Artist Award, which
provided a cash prize and an opportunity to
exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum.
For those who like to draw, Rachel and artist/art
teacher Matt Dickson host the monthly Anti-Art
School event at the Lost Leaf bar in downtown
Phoenix. Using the types of non-traditional models
you might find in either of their work, this is a
great event for those who want to draw outside of
the box, while in the company of other artists who
like to explore and create.
Dickson, also an exceptional painter, is a huge
supporter of Rachel’s work. “Knowing the
mechanics and complexity of oil painting, Rachel’s
work is humbling in her technical prowess and
ability to include narrative in her work. It’s rare
that you find both in a contemporary realist artist,”
he says.
Whether she is creating art, tending to her tiny
urban farm or competing with other fast-fingered
members of the pinball league she is involved
with, there’s no question that Rachel Bess will be
doing it with her combination of a passion for life
mixed with a fight to the death.
rachelbess.com
lisasettegallery.com
A Time That Never Existed,10” x 8”, oil on panel
Queen of Heartbreak, 12” x 21”, oil on panel
Pass Through These Hands Into a Season of Mists, 7” x 5”,
oil on panel
A Storm Always Follows, 14” x 11”, oil on panel
Spoils, 10” x 8”, oil on panel
Smashed, Rotting Grapefruit, 5” x 7”, oil on panel
Rotting Plums, 6” x 10”, oil on panel
JAVA 11
MAGAZINE