Rachel Roske

From Georges de la Tour to Gerhard Richter, the painted image of candlelight sparks associations from the religious to the sentimental, of divine illumination to the temporal limitations of mortality. In short, throughout Western art the candle recurs as an expansive symbol of humanity. I was drawn to other attributes, however, when I began painting these flames with their melting fuel at my kitchen table in Inglewood. I was fascinated by their unique phenomenological and physical qualities—the darkest black of the burned wick against the brightest light of pure heat; glowing hues lit from within; the effect of reflected candlelight on colored surfaces not unlike the sun sinking into the horizon of the ocean and the infinite changing colors that chart its movement.

Rachel Roske earned a BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in painting at the Yale University School of Art. She has completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Vermont Studio Center and the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been exhibited at various venues nationally.

She is an Assistant Professor in the Foundation Department of Otis College of Art & Design.