Rachel Lynn Sylvan 

My art is rooted in an international understanding what it means to judge and be judged.  I come from a religiously and politically diverse family unit that embodies an understanding that everyone is entitled to their opinions, lifestyle choices, and belief systems. Love is not limited to the like-minded. By being actively present, regardless of geographical distances, and supporting someone regardless of how much you disagree with their decisions, show love. You can still love someone and not love his or her choices. My art shows the struggles of embodying unconditional acceptance in environments that pride themselves on unlimited and instantaneous access to media sources.

 

 

We are conditioned to acknowledge when our subconscious mind internalizes information. With a constant presence of media in our culture, it is difficult to identify the invisible changes made to our lives by our subconscious. Image and color associations applied to travel writing and stream of consciousness writing creates the composition of my work. Not only does this process create insight for research and artwork, but it also allows for a sense of balance and self-awareness in daily life. The artwork takes on an illustrative quality similar to childhood storybooks in hope of resembling an external message being internalized in its most basic form: imagery. The inclusion of text assists the viewer to comprehend my choice to juxtapose seemingly unrelated objects in one picture plain. It also encourages critical thinking necessary to find the relation between such objects. Even though an object may have one meaning for me, it may have an entirely different meaning for you; discussing these differences in a fun and creative way, can lead to a future of more acceptance and understanding.