Rebecca Litt's Artist Lecture

I went to see Rebecca Litt's artist lecture on her residency experience in France. I was instantly struck by her liveliness and subtle joy when she spoke about her work.

Her work, previous to going to France, was rather melancholy in nature. Her oil paintings were mostly of dreamed characters in fictional city-scapes. They were mostly in the perspective of the third-person, and the viewpoints were generally elevated so that the viewer was looking down at the subject matter. She mentioned that she had envisioned taking her characters, which she sees as possible representations of personal characteristics, to France with her.

When she did go to France however, she found herself in a very different setting in which to paint, and she developed an entire different cast of characters of which to paint. They changed from naked women to europeans in speedos, and people in scuba equipment. Then when she came back to the states, she incorporated her new characters into her city-scapes, which have become increasingly more colorful than in her older work. I very much liked her piece with the divers in scuba masks dancing on a city rooftop.

Litt explained some useful information about her residency; such as the fact that the meals were provided by a chef, that everyone was assigned their own studio space, and how much time was devoted to painting as opposed to leisure or other activities.