Rebecca Potts Aguirre
Interdisciplinary Artist based in Los Angeles, California
ABOUT
Rebecca Potts Aguirre is a teaching artist from Montana currently based in Los Angeles. Her work is inspired by the intersection between ecological concern and the female experience, especially that of motherhood and trauma. She is represented by Stay Home Gallery in 2021, is a member of Spilt Milk Gallery, and is listed in the curated directory All She Makes. She earned her MFA in Visual Arts from Washington University in St. Louis and her BA in Studio Art & Geography from Middlebury College. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and in Europe and Australia at spaces including The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Zhou B. Art Center, New York Studio Gallery, Art Share L.A., and SoLA Contemporary. In 2010, her essay on art and climate change, “Creating a Fourth Culture,” was published in 20UNDER40: Re-Inventing the Arts and Arts Education for the 21st Century. Rebecca has also worked as an arts education administrator, community organizer, and school co-founder. She hosts Teaching Artist Podcast and co-facilitates the Art Educator’s Lounge, a community support group for art educators, in collaboration with Victoria Fry. She also runs Play + Inspire Gallery in partnership with Maria Coit and has curated several exhibitions. She participated in the Artist Residency in Motherhood from 2015-2019, which was the time it took to fully resume her art practice after becoming a mother.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I use polymer clay and play dough to sculpt paintings which reflect on gender, motherhood, environmentalism, and trauma. Clay squishes and cracks as I work it into paintings of daily life. The cracks that I fill are reminiscent of the Japanese art of Kintsugi. These scars speak to healing what’s broken while embracing imperfections. The tactility of clay is therapy as I mush it in my hands, healing my past. I work with precision, using a blade and a sewing pin to position tiny bits of clay, yet the clay rebels. Allowing rebellion, embracing it rather than fighting it, feels uneasy against the pressure to hold it all together. Play-Doh began as wallpaper cleaner, a domestic tool for every housewife to remove chimney soot from walls. As homes evolved, Play-Doh evolved into a play-thing for children. Polymer clay is a craft material, developed for sculpting dolls and now often used for jewelry. By elevating these “low-brow” child’s materials into a conceptual reference for the work of mothers, I’m making visible the often unseen act of mothering, the invisible world of children. Much of my work has focused on water. This blue gold swells with meaning and beauty. I watch my daughter go under, kick down, and come back up, gasping and laughing. I feel waves of joy seeing her in these moments of fun, peace, and calm; waves of anger and grief over my own childhood. Water has memory (so Olaf tells us)… and we’re made up of 60% water. So what does the body remember? I wonder, “does her body remember floating in the water in my womb?” We kick and swim, intertwined, our bodies distorted by water, pulling and pushing together, then apart. We breathe as one, forever connected, then she drifts away slowly.
Website: rebeccapotts.com
Instagram: @pottsart