Sophie Rae
Sophie Rae is an acrylic painter and graphic designer, born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona; currently based in Boston, MA. She has been painting since before she can remember. Sophie primarily prefers to create larger scale works that allow her to question the relationship between her upbringing and the world today. Through overlapping layers of thought, she begins a painting from simply a vision of color and an idea, and continues layering until a conversation of color and phrase forms within each work. These visual conversations frequently include overlapping themes of love and death, animals and anatomy, and religion and emotion. Uniting all of these ideas, and often seen throughout her work is her signature skull imagery. Sophie believes the skull is an icon of humanity, vibrancy, and is what connects us all as human beings. Her work’s purpose is to attempt to breath life into this iconically stoic symbol and make sense of humankind. Her work has been collected across the United States.
Q&A
What are your earliest memories of being artistic? I grew up painting with my mom in the detached garage converted studio in the back of our house. Listening to Santana, Lenny Kravitz, and Madonna with the doors open.
When did art become a pursuit? Around mid 2018 I decided to take a year off of my graphic design day job and try my hand at painting full time and traveling. From 2018-2019 I think I painted and sold over 30 works and since then it’s really showed me how much I love the idea of someday being able to support myself fully via painting.
Are you self-taught or formally educated in visual art? Self taught all the way
What role do you think the artist plays in society? To put visuals to their own memories and experiences in the hopes that maybe it resonates with others as part of a shared human experience.
What medium do you currently work in and how did you choose this medium? Acrylic paint. I love the thickness and texture of the paint and how it allows me to both build up and scratch away layers to reveal new color combinations and depths.
What is your creative process? Where are you finding ideas for your art these days? My ideas come from everywhere and fluctuate as often as the weather does here in Boston where I’m based. Often times paint barefoot with too much coffee in my system, trying to capture what happens when we die, what the color of love is, or if animals think like we do.
How do you choose your subject matter? Is there a reoccurring theme that carries throughout your work? My current work reflects my current passions and obsessions: the consequences of love and death, religion and human anatomy, animals and emotion, and an overall attempt to make sense of humanity and what connects us all as human beings. Throughout most of my work, and uniting these conversations is the skull. I use skulls as a focal point in my work, in order to present commonalities between humans and animals, discuss our present and our future, and as a symbol of life and of human kind.
In your opinion, what’s your best/favorite piece you’ve made? Maybe not my best, but by far my favorite to date– “AT WHAT COST” is a painting I finished in 2019 that was at the time a reach in a new abstract stylistic direction that now can be found in many of the paintings today. It is about the relationship between risk and reward. It’s also a nice peach color, which happens to be one of my favorite colors to paint in.
What is one of your artistic goals? I would love to paint for an album cover. I love the relationship between a great song or album and well designed cover art.
What’s your favorite place to see art, and why? Hanging in my friend’s homes. It’s cool to support artists however you can, and when I see original art (not even my own) hanging in someone’s living room, that I know they’ve spent their hard earned money on, it’s a cool feeling. I love knowing my friends feel the same.
What living artists are you inspired by? Heather Day (@heatherday), Hyangmok Baik (@hyangmok), Douglas Cantor (@douglas.cantor), Dave Heo (@davheo), Leigh Ellexson (@leighellexson), & Gino Belassen (@ginobelassen)
Do you have any shows coming up? I have a painting hanging in the second portion of CAA’s show BLUE, on view this December.
See more from Sophie
Sophie Rae has a piece in the second part of BLUE 2021. It is on view from December 1 – 17 Click to learn more.
Instagram: @sophie____rae
Website: www.sophieraeart.com