Fixing Our Eye
Rochelle Shicoff
About Rochelle Shicoff
I am a storyteller using lines, colors, shapes to express aspects of the human condition. I am both a studio artist and community muralist. I work in a series format because I believe that all work done in a series is connected and related in concept and spirit. I was the recipient of the Rome Prize Fellowship in Painting and spent a year painting and traveling throughout Europe and the Middle East.Selected awards: Visiting Artist residencies, community grants, and nominations for the Fulbright and American Academy of Arts and Letters.I co-authored The Mural Book: A Practical Guide for Educators published by Crystal Productions.My commissioned murals can be seen in NYC, Massachusetts, Florida, Georgia and Mexico. Selected mural awards include an Art in Action Grant, The Women Waging Peace Award, and the MA Council for the Arts Grant.Selected public art commissions:The NY School Construction Authority- 9 painted banners for Sunset Park H.S., Brooklyn, NY, ArtsWestchester,NY- (11) 13’ painted aluminum totems, on the tops are moving animals with golden wings. Installed at the Children’s Entrance, Mount Vernon Public Library. Smart Growth America, designed 2 posters and 6 installations along a new shuttle route in Western Massachusetts.
About Fixing Our Eye
My mixed media series Fixing Our Eye directly relates to the Shmita cycle: A Sabbat for the land and connecting the past to the present.THE LANDIn Fixing Our Eye, the cow image symbolizes the eternal land: working the land, living off of the land. 20 years ago I bought a farm and have been in close contact with the land ever since. No cows now, only soil that is fertile from generations of cows. The gardens are healthy and generous. Nature’s cycle of seasons is one of the reasons I live in Massachusetts where each season is vivid and intense. In Near Us and And You Shall Hold, the shapes that contain no images represent a ceasing of activities. THE PASTThe materials used in this series combine past painting fragments and vintage table runners. These table runners are used as a support and can be seen as connecting the past to the present. The shapes are defined with textile trim and encaustic, an ancient wax technique. I layered together fabrics from my vintage textile collection bought in the markets of South East Asia, and adds history and memories from the past. THE PRESENTThe present is represented by using contemporary photographs and pencil drawings The intention of Shmita is to give something up. I am suggesting for this Schmita year allowing my gardens-flowers, bushes, trees to grow untended, no weeding, no new planting. I propose to replace this “giving up” with a ritual, the same one, experienced in one hour on the same day of the week each week for a year. I will choose only one activity from this list of feasible replacements: reading from the works of a favorite poet, creating a self portrait, meditating, journaling, listening to a favorite composer
