About Renée

Art, design, craft, and creation are my passions. I find inspiration everywhere, in so many things. I've been an artist, actively creating in one form or another, for most of my life. I was largely self-taught until I pursued a formal arts education in college, majoring in graphic design with fine arts foundation work.

I am passionate about drawing, painting, sculpting, refurbishing, building, and pursuing nearly anything that challenges my aesthetic sense and inventive spirit. One of my favorite aspects of my work is that I am often able to incorporate salvaged materials into my pieces. Creating that includes reuse is near and dear to my heart, because it places new value on old or discarded things and, over time, can help our planet's ongoing waste crisis.

In recent years, I have connected with my work as a way to express my opinions and start conversations around things from my own personal experience and things lived vicariously through

others. In the immediate future, I hope to present collections of work that spark thought and discussion around topics that interest me, acting as a sort of visual survey of society, for my own study of modern humanity. That said, I love to make just plain old pretty things, too.

I hope in my work, experimentation, and learning processes, to inspire others to find something they are passionate about, and to focus on it long enough to make it their own gift back to the world.

Thank you for visiting my site! -Renée

FAQ

How do you come up with your projects?

"How do the projects find you?" would be more accurate. Ideas for projects show up every day through observation of the world around me, and often evolve as personal challenges to create something, often a new twist on an

old idea.

What happens when you have a creative block/are stumped for ideas?

That never happens. Kidding- it does once in a while, and when it does, there are plenty of fun distractions that lead me right back down the path of inspiration. I read, get outdoors, travel, hang with friends, go

dancing, and throw some napping, cleaning, organizing, and exercise into the mix, and before long, the creative juices get flowing again. I've learned not to force it, because solutions or ideas never round themselves out

when I strain for them. These days, the most downtime I seem to need when this happens is two days. By day two, though I've forbidden myself to pick up so much as a piece of printer paper and a crayon, the itch starts to

return (usually late at night), and I have to make myself go to bed and reserve the force of it for a new day.

A little-known fact about your work?

Some pieces "chase" me around for years in my mind before I get around to them. Some pieces can be finished

in a day, while others can be started, but then can't be moved forward for a year or more, until one day lightning strikes, and I'm able to finish them in an instant. I can't force them before they've incubated for

a while, because I never like the end result when they're forced, so I stay busy with other pieces. It helps

to always have a bunch of projects going at one time.

What would you do if you weren't an artist?

I would probably pursue something in the sciences and/or engineering, because I love discovering how things

work, and creating more efficient ways to do things or solutions to everyday problems.

multimedia artist Renée Parker

About Renée