Rachel Citrino, inspired by the Delaware River
By TTF interns Dana Kluchinski and Bella Lentz
TTF is very excited… an artist neighbor at Globe Dye Works has donated works of art about water to beautify our office and inspire us!
Rachel Citrino is a Philadelphia artist who has exhibited in the US, Italy, Belgium, Egypt, and Brazil. She identifies as a painter, but she uses photography and sculpture as well, though she approaches photos as a painter. She became interested in photography when she carried an instamatic camera in her purse to take pictures of her children. She used photographs as “sketches” and eventually purchased an SLR. Photography did not become a frequent medium for Citrino until Photoshop was available. With photoshop she could treat photography like painting, and stay out of the darkroom.
In her series of the Delaware River, she took sections of a photograph and stretched and expanded it until she achieved the right aesthetic effect. Seeing the trash-filled river inspired her to create the piece. The high contrast and grayscale represent the opposing forces of natural beauty and trash. The added blue line not only acts as the presence of the “artist’s hand”, but is the act of “scribbling on something beautiful.” She both captured and enacted the idea of “defacing nature.”
Rachel says she has noticed improvements in the river’s health over the past 30 years…but even now there is still trash in the river. We all need to work together to keep our creeks and river beautiful and natural.
You can see Rachel’s work in the “Pope Up” show at the Globe Dye Works from September 4-27 (open to the public on weekends). Learn more about Rachel here. Thank you and we love you, Rachel!
We hope you’ll stop by to see Rachel’s amazing art at our office on the 3rd floor of the Globe Dye Works.
Interested in working with us to connect art to environment? Contact Doryan at 215-744-1853 or Doryan@ttfwatershed.org with your ideas and energy.
