Redland Rambles

This year’s GrowFest! debuts the Redland ART section. Applying the same criteria as for all GrowFest! vendors, art or photography by local artists is showcased, depicting local, edible or native plant, animal or local scenes, or incorporates locally-grown or native materials.

Rachel Pikarsky is an up-and-coming printmaker based in Redland. She grew up on Bee Heaven Farm, and has drawn inspiration from the natural and human environment around her.

In her own words:

Whether it be figuring out who someone is to me and where they fit in my world, playing around with silly, slightly cynical ideas, or dissecting my own psyche, my artwork is my way of decoding the world around me. I tend to try to portray the essence of an individual, object, or experience by placing it in an unusual situation and seeing how it responds. In that way my work has a sort of life of its own.

I began playing with the idea of birds for exactly that reason. They are often viewed as diminutive mindless creatures, but to me they are so much more. They possess the amazing ability to remove themselves from any situation they feel uncomfortable in. Therefore, anything I draw them doing, they must have inherently chosen to be in that state. This ended up creating an interesting meaning for me because so often I, like everyone I would imagine, feel trapped doing things I don’t wish to be doing and have little control over how I am reacting.

My subject matter and even the medium became a sort of therapy for me regarding these sorts of situations. I make prints of different sorts—lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, silkscreens, etc… There is one thing that all of these have in common: they are incredibly tedious and time consuming. I began spending countless hours perfecting a wing or drawing tangled nests and it made me feel completely and utterly, if for just a moment, in control.

I draw inspiration from the people and places around me, which almost always has its roots in nature and the tropics. I try not to shy away from the nitty-gritty of mother nature and instead embrace it and turn it around into a bit of tongue in cheek banter and much of my work has a ridiculous or sarcastic side to it. My work as a whole ends up being a black and white intricacy splattered with bright colors and an expressive drawing style incorporating memorable farmers from the area, fruits with personality, and anxious alcoholic birds!