DIDOMENICO, REBECCA

Statement
I work with the collision and interpretation of various forms of nature, mythology, art history, and metaphysics.  I am interested in unexpected relationships, the way a spider web mimics a wheel, the commonality between Dr. Seuss and the Dalai Lama, the resemblance between patterns in the constellations of the stars and the minute particulars inside the human body.  I become fascinated with the materials:  mica recreated as a skin or a chamber, thread floating on diaphanous fabric, knitted metal mesh emerging from a sand floor, the lyrical shape of a sphere of umbrellas, etc.  The materials become a jumping off point to explore the nature of a veil, the phenomenology of an umbrella, or communication between plant life.  Do we perceive in tiny bits of information, because otherwise so much beauty would knock us over?  Like the French poet, Paul Valery, who wrote, “ Man’s great misfortune is that he has no organ, no kind of eyelid or brake, to mask or block a thought, or all thought, when he wants to.” It seems we need to be able to temporarily turn off the bombardment of stimuli, in order to re-emerge with new eyes.  I hope my work acts as a kind of magic cloak, gathering fields of color and texture ever present in nature, reinventing and re-issuing them into another form.  Like a butterfly that emerges from a chrysalis, when a filter is allowed to widen, a universal truth, or a band of possible truths may emerge, moving to a language that has been pulsating under our eyelids all the time.

Biography
Rebecca DiDomenico was born in Greenbrae, California.  She attended school at Claremont College, Tribhuvan University in Nepal and graduated from the University of Colorado with a BA in English Literature.  In DiDomenico’s world, there is no separation between art and life, studio and home.  Her work is concerned with the collision and interpenetration of various forms of nature, mythology, art history and metaphysics.  With her innate, relentless curiosity, DiDomenico casts the net of her imagination wide.  “I am interested in unexpected relationships, the way a spider web mimics a wheel, the commonality between Dr. Seuss and the Dali Lama, the resemblance between patterns in the constellations of the stars and the minute particles inside the human body.”

A selected list of her exhibitions, collections and publications includes Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; Denver International Airport; San Francisco Craft & Folk Art Museum; Denver Art Museum; Artspace; Art Papers; Artweek; Marin Independent Journal; The Washington Post; Art in America; and The New York Times.  

Rebecca DiDomenico has been a member of Artnauts since 2007
www.didomenicostudio.com