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BIOGRAPHY

Born in Naaldwijk, Holland in 1982, Rachel van der Pol moved to southern California with her family when she was just four years old. When Rachel’s parents recognized their very young daughter’s tendency toward quiet musings, they carted her off to arts and crafts workshops. While her two sisters were exercising their energetic talents on theater and the performing arts, Rachel was focusing her attentions on manipulating paints for her own delight. As she grew, she never lost her affection for creativity and continues to put it at the center of her life.

Working with a variety of mediums including oil paint, acrylic paint and stained-glass mosaics, Rachel’s pieces are characterized by her bold color choices, detailed design work and self-portrait subject matter. She recently achieved a Bachelor of Art in Studio Art from CSU Fullerton in 2007. She has shown her work numerous times with the underground art scene in Los Angeles and she has also organized several of her own solo exhibitions. Rachel hopes to make the creation of art her life’s career so that she can focus on it and develop it into a beautiful body of work that defines her existence.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My earlier works depict a female figure that is highly stylized. As I developed, my work becomes more personal and the figures in my work become more representational until they become self-portraits. I like to use my own form because it is through this shape that I can most absolutely express myself. Sometimes I work directly from personal photographs, use myself as a live model or draw from a symbolic female form given personal attributes.

Although my work is almost always an attempt to express my inner being through my own figure, my work varies by its construction from different mediums. I can never stick with just one method because there are so many distinctive and beautiful attributes that each holds.

I began creating mosaics with broken bits of stained glass after I discovered the glistening beauty they hold. The mind-numbing act of laying down clattering pieces of glass to create a colorful glittering work of art envelopes me. Although the technique is completely different from any kind of painting, there exists a similarity of subject matter between both my mosaics and my paintings.

As I was originally trained in oil paint, I return to its rich colors and creamy textures again and again. I begin with a simple sketch and layer elaborate patterns around it, filling the entire arrangement with vivid colors and intricate design. The composition grows into a vibrant piece that is ornately patterned.

During an experimental phase, I freely spill acrylic paint onto a surface. I watch as the sloppy drippings quickly evolve into recognizable forms. I rarely create such pieces anymore because they do not require my total concentration like the tedium of much of my other work does. However, many of these paintings remain the favored pieces of my entire collection.

If, in the future, I become passionate about a different medium, I believe that the use of my own figure and colorful pattern work will unify my complete body of work.