RAEGAN RUSSELL

"Ashanti culture says that you do not know who you are, unless you can name your ancestors for ten generations back. I may not be able to trace my own roots back that far, but I find an understanding of who I am and what drives my work from looking at the women ancestors of my own past.

As the great granddaughter of a child Irish lace-maker turned American indentured servant, I am driven to work with my hands. From another great grandmother, a free spirit born in a covered wagon headed west, I seek out experiences without pre- scribed outcomes. Both the spirits of the pioneer and the craftsperson have taken root in my way of thinking and working.

Perhaps in a not so subtle nod to my great grandmothers of the Industrial Revolution, and in an effort to address the enormous impact of technology today, these new paintings speak to the tension between industry and the organic. I am interested in challenging the notion that technology and nature are separate entities, and in portraying the push and pull between the two.

In these paintings, prefabricated shapes from manufactured fans and propellors become dark flowers and pod forms which move through an open organic space. What is essential in the paintings are the questions,the relationships, and the mysteries of how the entities coexist."

Raegan received her MFA from Boston University. She currently teaches art at Berwick Academy. She currently resides in South Berwick, ME.