Blog Archives
Q: You’ve been working with the same medium and subject matter for decades. How did that begin, and how has it sustained you for so long? (Question from “Pastel, Passion, and Perseverance: An Interview with Barbara Rachko” in .ART Odyssey: Healing)
A: Back in the early 1990s I began using folk art as my subject matter, and I was incredibly lucky. More than thirty years later, I’m still working with it. As artists, we don’t know at the start whether a subject will sustain us, whether it will keep our curiosity alive. For me it has. I’ve always been fascinated by different cultures around the world, and that continues to feed the work. There’s freedom in that kind of framework.
I chose pastel on sandpaper as my medium. I don’t have to question it anymore. That choice itself has opened space to keep growing.
Comments are welcome!
Q: You started the Bolivianos series in 2017. It has been 8 years since you created The Champ. This endeavor of focussing on a series for almost a decade’s timeline shows that you embody stability as against many artists who tend to hop on to the next inspiration they find. How has discipline, stability, focus and punctuality defined your works apart from being inspired by Bolivian culture for the series Bolivianos? (Question from Vedica Art Studios and Gallery)
A: My first series, Domestic Threats, lasted fifteen years, and my second, Black Paintings, lasted ten. Stability and related qualities are likely natural parts of my personality, reinforced by my previous professional life. My prior careers as a Navy Commander, commercial pilot, and Boeing-727 Flight Engineer undoubtedly helped develop discipline, stability, focus, and punctuality. Details matter deeply to me; as a Naval Officer for twenty-one years, “attention to detail” was paramount. From my earliest days as an artist, I have been meticulous and dedicated to inventing new techniques and refining the craft of soft pastel.
I dislike wasting precious time. As a goal-oriented person, I continually strive to accomplish as much as possible. These qualities were influenced by my Navy career and further deepened by the tragic loss of my husband onboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. I understand firsthand that life can change in an instant. Whenever I finish one task, I immediately look around and ask, “OK, what’s next?” I devote my studio time to pushing myself and pastel to new technical heights. There’s always more to accomplish as an artist!
Comments are welcome!
Q: Over your 40-year career as an artist, you have managed to keep presentation, technical, subject matter, conceptual consistencies in your art practice and work. How do you manage to filter out inspirations that might be luring at that moment but do not support your art practice? For example, you master pastel works. There must have been moments when you might have been inspired to make oil works. How do you keep such inspirations aside. (Question from Vedica Art Studios and Gallery)
A: About thirty-five years ago, when my pastel paintings were becoming larger—around 60” x 40”—I had to choose between transitioning to oil on canvas or continuing with pastel. Framing was the main concern. I wasn’t certain large pastels could be framed, and even if they could, the cost might be prohibitive. However, I had already fallen in love with pastel and knew no other medium could offer such vibrant colors or velvety textures. Determined, I resolved the framing issue (art-making is fundamentally problem-solving), committed myself fully to soft pastel, and have continued inventing and refining techniques ever since.
My goal from the beginning has always been improvement as an artist. If an activity doesn’t contribute to my growth—as a person or as an artist—I typically don’t pursue it. Time and energy are finite resources, so I try to use them wisely.
Comments are welcome!
Pearls from artists* # 688
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
Many artists see their studio practice as a religion. Like any other faith, it has rituals, beliefs, devotions, visionaries, martyrs, and even miracles. Our souls have a need to position themselves in the giant scheme of the universe, and art, like spiritual conviction, helps us do that. It allows us to decipher and process the complexities of the world around us. It can make us better humans by telling stories and sharing points of view that stoke compassion, understanding, and empathy. It holds the potential to redeem both the maker and the viewer, transcending quotidian dullness by evoking a deep significance we had forgotten.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
Comments are welcome!
Q: You read books on Friedrich Nietzsche and other philosophers. How has philosophy and your personal experience shaped the latest series, Bolivianos? (Question from Vedica Art Studios and Gallery)
A: It’s difficult to pinpoint how philosophy specifically shaped my work because my curiosity spans so many subjects. Some critics have described me as a Renaissance woman, remarking on my wide-ranging and voracious reading. It’s true—I’m genuinely interested in practically everything!
In pursuit of making art, I have undertaken in-depth studies of numerous intriguing fields: drawing, color, composition, gross anatomy, art and art history, the art business, film history, photography, psychology, mythology, literature, philosophy, religion, music, jazz history, and archaeology—particularly ancient Mesoamerica (Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Aztec, and Maya) and South America (the Inca and their ancestors).
Since the early 1990s, my inspiration and subject matter have come primarily from international travel to remote parts of the globe, especially Mexico, Central America, and South America. Travel is by far the best education! By visiting distant destinations, I have developed a deep reverence for people and cultures around the world. People everywhere are connected by our shared humanity.
These travels, supplemented by extensive research at home, are essential parts of my creative process. Research can be solitary and demanding, but I truly enjoy it. I want to know as much as possible, and this curiosity generates ideas for new work, propelling me into unexplored creative realms.
Foreign travel always expands our ways of thinking. This rich mixture of creative influences continually evolves and finds its way into my pastel paintings. Working, learning, evolving, and growing—I am perpetually curious and can hardly imagine a better way to spend my time on Earth!
Comments are welcome!
Pearls from artists* # 673
Barbara’s Studio
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
You may occasionally have the opportunity to publicly comment about the work, which helps to shape its life, but others will also interpret, criticize, and project their own agendas onto it. You must learn to be ok with that. You cannot follow your art around, explaining it and defending it. Once released, the life of your work depends on all sorts of factors completely out of your control. Separating your ego and self-worth from what you produce can be challenging, but it is essential. It protects your vital studio activity from the damaging effects of the outside world. Letting go of the old work also frees you up to move forward and focus on the next great idea.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
Comments are welcome!
Pearls from artists* # 659
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
Your only goal is to be the purest and strongest version of yourself, and to articulate that as fully as possible through your creations. Avoid any enticements that threaten to eclipse the priority of your work, to lure you off in another direction toward a different goal. You are here to spend a lifetime exploring and refining what excites you.
Like Olympic athletes, trailblazing artists do not waste a second looking around at their competition to measure how they are doing. They do not look to the sidelines to measure their applause. They just keep moving forward, in the focused direction of their vision. When you possess a quiet, solid confidence and you are completely unshaken (not even a twitch) when someone looks at your work and says, ‘I don’t really like it,’ you have arrived. If you are not there yet, keep practicing. The opinions of others are simply the ever-shifting clouds, moving across your infinite azure sky.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
Comments are welcome!
Pearls from artists* # 656
At Storm King Art Center, Cornwall-On-Hudson, NY. Photo: Susan Erlichman
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
The world needs artists more than they know, and you are entitled to be one of them. We altruistically create gifts, with no assurance those gifts will be appreciated. Like social workers, we do not make a lot of money, but we improve the quality of people’s lives through ripple effects. When our work shifts the perceptions of one viewer, the transformation often radiates to others around them. That includes dialogue and pushes the world toward more truth or justice and inspires others to do the same.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
Comments are welcome!
Pearls from artists* # 651
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
We are engaged in a mission that can be perplexing to those around us. We are playing a long game that no one else can see. Every time we walk into the studio, it is a mini act of defiance against all of those who believe we are wasting our time. If you do not shore up and internalize this right to make art until it becomes a part of you, outside forces will repeatedly rise up to challenge it, creating conflict. Understand deep in your being that making art is a vital part of who you are, to be your own strongest advocate. Be greedy for the time and space your work requires to be actualized.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
Comments are welcome!
barbararachkoscoloreddust.com 
Q: What kind of internal conversations do you tend to have when you are in the process of making art? (Question from Vedica Art Studios and Gallery)
Jan 10
Posted by barbararachkoscoloreddust
A: When standing at my easel creating a pastel painting, I focus on formal properties: composition, shape, color, and line. I always strive to produce a painting I’ve never seen before. Even as (perhaps especially as) the creator, I want to be surprised by the final result. My studio days are spent thinking, looking, reacting, and adjusting colors and composition as I refine increasingly tiny details, ensuring all elements work harmoniously. I determine which areas need to recede or advance, which require intricate details to appear three-dimensional, and which are better left as flat areas of color.
These countless adjustments ensure viewers’ eyes are guided around the finished painting in intriguing ways. I often recall something collectors of my pastel paintings shared: they mentioned a New York Times review of a Nan Goldin exhibition, in which the writer stated, “All of the pleasure circuits are fired in looking.” The collectors agreed this is exactly how they feel when viewing my work. Artists live for appreciative comments like these!
Comments are welcome!
Share this:
Posted in 2026, An Artist's Life, Creative Process, Studio, Working methods
Comments Off on Q: What kind of internal conversations do you tend to have when you are in the process of making art? (Question from Vedica Art Studios and Gallery)
Tags: adjusting, adjustments, advance, agreed, always, appear, appreciative, areas, around, artists, “Magisterial”, “New York Times”, better, circuits, collectors, colors, comments, composition, countless, creating, creator, details, determine, elements, ensure, ensuring, especially, exactly, exhibition, finished, fired, formal, guided, harmoniously, increasingly, intricate, intriguing, looking, mentioned, Nan Goldin, painting, pastel painting, perhaps, pleasure, produce, properties, question, reacting, recall, recede, refine, require, result, review, shared, something, stated, strive, Studio, surprised, thinking, three-dimensional, Vedica Art Studios and Gallery, viewers, viewing, working, writer