Erector Square: Dawn Rudd

City-Wide Open Studios
50 Orange St., New Haven, (203) 772-2709
Erector Square: Dawn Rudd
Oct. 15, 2006.

This was Dawn Rudd's first time participating in Open Studios. But it was already a promising start. She told me that she had received an invitation to be part of a show in February.

The walls of her studio were hung with paintings spanning more than a decade of work. I asked her about two recent paintings, "Forest Blue" and Blue Jazz and Whiskey," both abstractions. The latter painting has a textural layering of acrylic paint and tissue paper. There is a wonderful tactile presence to the surface, which has been lacquered to a bright shine. The former is notable for the way Rudd deftly combined vertical strips of magazine imagery with the acrylic paint background.

"I knew the feeling I wanted but I wanted to stay open to the process," Rudd said. She added that she likes "using older magazines because the paper is thicker and there is more richness to the colors."

Her work from 10 and 12 years ago is noticeably different from the dense textural abstractions of the present. Rudd said she didn't want to be constrained by peoples' expectations based on previous work.

"It's an evolution in terms of growth as an artist. But I have a lot of inspiration inside and I want to be open to whatever energy I'm feeling and not be limited by what I've done before," said Rudd.

"And I want to be fearless."