Rachel Korn begins a painting with no conscious intention. This represents a sea change, an evolutionary shift, from her earlier work. A gestural Zen, a confidence in the hand and brush, is possible for this artist as a result of decades of work. Korn began her artistic journey as a figurative painter but gradually turned to abstraction. She feels her painting, which was formerly heavily narrative, is now freed from the need to tell a story while simultaneously embracing a different narrative: music, nature and the rhythms of life and growth.
Korn paints without under-drawing, in response to her state of mind at any given moment. She commented that her work, “engages me in a journey between deliberate and intuitive uses of paint and brings with it thoughts, memories, and associations that appear in the work in the form of atmosphere and mood.” She has reached a point where technique merges with subject matter, and her brush has become an extension of her eye and brain.
She works spontaneously but will often turn her canvases this way and that, realizing that her compositions can be fluid until the last moment. This formal analysis takes place after the main gestures have been established but can be revelatory in the evolution of the painting’s composition. Korn described her working process: “As the painting emerges, it’s an ever-changing process. I follow, more than I control. My process is always a balancing act between the push of wanting to make the painting work versus the pull of fear that I will do too much.”