Basin Fine Art - Rasa Glengary

Rasa Glengary received her degree in Fine Arts from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, with an emphasis in ceramics and drawing and also did some postgraduate study at Eastern Michigan University. She taught ceramics and textiles at Wayne State University and Center for Creative Studies, also in Detroit. At the time, many of her mentors and professors were involved with the "Cass Corridor Movement". A counterculture of the late 60's and early 70's which had its roots on the campus of Wayne State University, where artists developed a strong creative community. She was very fortunate to have studied with these and other preeminent Detroit artist of the time.

After moving to St. Croix ten years ago Rasa was extremely impressed with the high quality of talent present on this island and felt a strong reawakening and desire to make art after a long hiatus raising two daughters. Rasa began to paint, first in oils and then watercolor and was primarily excited about the technical challenges of watercolor painting in a photorealistic style. She work exclusively from photographs, a purposeful decision made, rather than working directly from posed subjects. Rasa feels that there is a moment captured in a photograph this is often intriguing and enigmatic --- and her hope is that those qualities come across in the finished portraits. The gaze of the subject as juxtaposed with the gaze of the artist (and ultimately, the viewer) is one of the oldest and most important traditions in art history. What she ultimately find most gratifying is when asked about a particular painting: "What are they thinking?" Most often, she receives many different interpretations of the people that are portrayed. Their often-inscrutable expressions - a frozen moment captured in time, is what she most hope to express as an artist.

In addition to the inspirations Rasa already stated, she is also very influenced by the recent resurgence in portraiture in postmodern art and particularly intrigued by the work of Elizabeth Peyton and Kehinde Wiley. Rasa says "Wiley's cheeky, technically brilliant and larger than life portraits are breathtaking and I instantly gravitated towards Peyton's small, lush portraits of celebrities. I appreciate that there is a renewed interest in portraiture, and that these young artists bring such differing sensibilities to the current art market."