RAINE GIFFORD STUDIO

Raine started assembling pieces with one inch squares of watercolor on paper in 2017.   She works with squares from many different leftover, no-longer-needed paintings which are cut up, and then rearranged into compositions.  “Mosaic tiles” seems the most descriptive way to refer to this form of building an image.  Through a number of different series that have emerged during the last eight years, there has been a consistent interest in the use of negative space, and the play of light and shadow; Raine mounts each little square on a piece of foam core or mat board and then glues them in place so they appear to float. Raine says she likes to “think of how individual bits of time and memory collect and become something cumulative;” she also likes the idea of “illustrating the beauty of maintaining individuality while simultaneously relating to others and working together to be part of something bigger.”  Larger “tiles” made with paper, Aquabord, and composite have also been used in a similar process.