Artist Statement/Bio
Artist’s Statement:
“… art picks up where nature ends.” — Marc Chagall
Art has always been part of me, from the first time I colored outside the lines and preferred my result to the neater versions of my classmates. I started to identify myself as an “artist” when others called me by that name. By high school I was known to be skilled at drawing and painting and began to understand that this was something you could “be.”
I grew up in a simple blue-collar neighborhood among kids who played ball in the streets and did not talk about the future. One rainy day I watched the movie Moulin Rouge on tv and I fell in love with Toulouse-Lautrec and his loose beautiful style, which inspired me to move beyond the strictly realistic work of aspiring young artists I met in art class. I chose to study art seriously after I received a scholarship that made college possible for me. Once in college we all experimented with everything. Pop art was still around and Warhol’s use of photography interested me – he made photographs speak his own separate language.
After college I worked in illustration and design for years, went to Pratt to work on a Masters and moved into advertising which, in those pre-computer days, was a lot of fun.
In the past decade I have become fascinated with the concept of inside-out, flipping some part of the perspective in each piece I create. I can find stunning beauty in the people around me as well as my surroundings. Then I put all my efforts into making that particular image speak to the viewer in a way that is clearly and easily understood. I create a kind of enhanced reality using photographs that I have taken along with paint, metallic glazes, crayon, pastel and sometimes a variety of less conventional media to bring my inner vision forward in my artwork. You will see what I see.
The faces of people around me, the spaces, light, sky and depth of the local landscape are all sources of beauty and fascination to me. I can only hope to translate some of that magic onto the individual and unique images I put before you. If I succeed then we have both been enriched by the experience.
While I use my own photographic images, there is no use of digital art effects or scanning, no reproductions of finished pieces, no multiple editions. Each completed piece is unique and hand-made, a one of a kind finished multimedia artwork.
Biography:
Educated at the State University College of NY in Buffalo, majored in painting and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. Continued her education with graduate work toward a Masters in design at Pratt Institute in New York City. Ms. Racanello had a career in advertising, working in and around New York City. She ended her career as Vice President of Creative for a division of Time/Warner and eventually relocated to Maryland where she had kept a farm as a part-time home and getaway. Once in Maryland full time she spent 12 years managing a regional non-profit. Now she consults in arts management and spends as much time as she can creating landscapes that attempt to convey the sweep and power of the scenes that surround her.
Arts Management:
In addition to creating and showing her own work, she has worked with the St. Mary’s County Community Development Corporation as Project Manager for the arts on the creation of an arts hot-spot in Lexington Park, a semi-urban outpost in southern Maryland. The first annual arts festival was held there in Spring 2017 and a second in 2018. Creating and installing public art in Lexington Park was another ongoing effort. A mural designed by a local artist was projected on a 50” x 15’ wall and was painted on by Ms. Racanello, with help from volunteers. A second mural project designed by Racanello titled “Artists Come in Every Color” was created and installed by her. A project called “Wings over Lexington Park” was created in partnership with a young local artist and the two women painted pairs of wings on a wall for visitors to take a selfie in front of. During Covid, Racanello painted a supersized nurse in full protective gear with angel wings as a thank you to health workers. The last two projects have since been painted over by building owners but can be seen here. Additional projects seek a site and funding and are currently under consideration.