Meet Rebecca Connolly | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rebecca Connolly and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rebecca, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
I like the challenge of answering this as I feel most living, creating artists- especially those that are reliant on the success of their work to fuel their business/income- have this internal dilemma on such a minute yet constant level. For me there is always a mindset/desire to finish strong, while also allowing myself to give up or give into a certain project or medium. For example, I have been working on one large-scale colored pencil drawing for the past year and half. If I were to have dedicated 3 months of time to it, it would be finished, but giving myself fierce deadlines makes me less motivated to complete it. I go at a pace that feels manageable, which means sometimes I am working on it 2-4 times a week, and then taking space from it for a few months at a time. Does this mean I am going or giving up? Its a constant dilemma I find myself in. Simultaneously, I have other projects I am working on that have a more immediate outcome and fuel the need for “finishing” a project (ie: my ceramics, stained glass, collage, and small-scale drawings).

Ultimately being an artist is a lifelong process, it is not about whether you’re at your emerging, mid-career, or established stage. There are many points throughout a career that makes you want to give up, but trusting the process that develops over a life span (5+ decades) is what keeps me going. I want my practice to be consistent, to have work to show for various eras throughout my life, whether the work is well-received by others or not.

I have been making art since I was a child and have recently had the privilege to sort through all of my childhood drawings and paintings. To see how much I was making between the ages of 4-10 granted me a visual journal of time, progression and inspiration that informs me as an artist today. The pressure to keep going for the sake of others makes me want to give up, but the internal satisfaction of seeing a lifelong practice allows me to keep going. Even if I only complete one “major” work a year, all the while I am still making smaller, signifying works of the time period, to trace my progression and document where I am at during a specific time/place/space.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I make a wide variety of art. My main focus is split between hyperrealistic colored pencil drawings, stained glass, and ceramics. What sets me apart is minute differences that maybe only I feel and recognize. I see a through-line between all my work, working largely from reference, inspiration, or everyday city-sightings. I am especially interested in reflections and spills and how these operate constantly in our everyday life. Without looking closely, you dont really realize how much we are reflected back at ourselves and I love taking the time to embrace those reflections and notice the parallel and perpendicular realities within it. Although each medium differs so greatly physically, I enjoy seeing the similarities between them and how those differences are transported within each given medium. Beyond being proud of a singular piece, I am most proud to be currently where I am, because I know my artistic career feels yet to fully take off. I am not creating for an audience, for an exhibit, or a collector, but I know deep down my work will be admired. What I am trying to say is that I am most proud of my artistic initiative and creativity and how this inspires my direct community of friends, artists, and strangers without the external pressures, anxiety and troubles that come with success.

A lesson I am still learning along the way is that its not about the end goal, it is about the journey of getting there, finding alignment with my internal discipline. I have felt deterred in the past from finishing a highly complicated, time-consuming piece, knowing that in several hours I could complete so little. However if I were to even commit one hour, let alone three, a few times a week that same daunting piece would be finished. As an artist I get eager to be at the end of the making process. Finding a way to enjoy myself along the way, and finding that internal discipline I imagine to be a lifelong practice and a lesson that I am continuously learning, adapting, and embracing as I go. If there is anything I want the world to know about me or my story is that it feels ordinary but inspiring. I love to find the little joys in life and the embrace all the outtakes we often overlook.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is a fun question because this just recently happened to me! One of my best friends from college came to visit and I got to cater an experience to her/our specific interests. We started by going to Chinatown, to eat at Foo Chow and shop around at night with full bellies. The following days we thrifted our hearts out, stopping at any Goodwill we passed on the street, driving out to the Valley to go to Valley Value thrift for some deals. We went to my favorite restaurant in the city called Versailles, some super yummy Cuban food, and then went to the Mint down the street form Versailles for a night spent dancing and listening to some fantastic jazz with good friends all around. We went to Lil Tokyo to stop by Bunkado (phenomenal Japanese store filled with ceramics, lights, trinkets, manga, records/cds, etc), as well the Japanese American National Museum, MOCA, and then the Broad. Lots of art, shopping, and embracing of the all the different cultures throughout the beautiful Los Angeles.

We were lucky enough to see beautiful sunsets during her visit and we went up to what I believe to be one of the best views in the city– a small lookout point in Laurel Canyon– and later in her trip, to the Palisades Bluffs right above Will Rogers, my favorite beach in the city that brings me so much tranquility when you catch it in the perfectly still moments. In a kismet way, we went to Will Rogers and the Palisades bluffs the evening before the fires broke out, bringing extra appreciation for this trip and Los Angeles, I was so grateful to have embraced, honored, and showed off the breadth, beauty and extent of Los Angeles before our city forever changed the following weeks of fires.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I immediately think to shoutout all of the artists and galleries I have had the pleasure to work under to inspire me to achieve more than I did previous day. Cameron Bishop of Beau Rush Ceramics, timo fahler, and now Shio Kusaka/Jonas Wood are fantastic artists that instilled hope within me of what running a successful business looks like. Built upon the efforts and belief of yourself, with backing from a larger community that allows you to keep pursuing. All the while, working in blue chip galleries like Lisson or Marian Goodman, within proxy to so many historical artists — ones shifting the current contemporary culture and canon– have stimulated introspection of finding success within being a living artist, and what the realities of this “success” looks like.

Above all else, all the artists, galleries, and organizations I have worked for have humanized the artist. Inspiring me to recognize the very human-ness that begins with wanting to be an artist to begin with. Its a vulnerable craft and to be recognized within your lifetime can be very surreal, and before my experiences with mid-career artists within highly professional boundaries, there was a level of idolization that was not realistic to who(m) the artist is on the day-to-day.

Instagram: reb.con / rebcon.creations