Art
Rachelle Cunningham: "Instagram is for me the largest art gallery"
Followed by several thousand followers on Instagram, the artist and illustrator who has made painting a cathartic remedy for her endometriosis shows Byronesque heroines in her works with dreamlike accents.
Can you retrace the main lines of your career, and tell us in more detail how painting imposed itself on you?
Since I was little, my father and I have been painting together. I was always found with brushes in my hands, and I don't think that neither he nor I imagined then that these hours of leisure and games would determine my life to such an extent. I moved around a lot growing up, I was always the new one, in a new unknown school. I often enrolled in acting classes to make friends, I liked to discuss my story with others, the costumes, the idea of having to create a character for myself. It was only at the age of 15 that I returned to painting, which became a form of therapy. I often suffered from violent stomach pains and my endometriosis was not yet diagnosed, but when I painted the pains subsided, I managed to escape. Art somehow saved my life, and I decided to train myself more in artistic disciplines. I got accepted to Parsons The New School of Design, and got my bachelor's degree in art media technology. It was really at this time that art became a way of life for me.
What are the places, eras, universes or artistic references that stimulate your inspiration?
The Renaissance, fairy tales, theatrical costumes, the dream world, the dance of course, the music as a whole, the moon and nature that I find fascinating, women under their multiple prisms and magic.
I grew up being steeped in French culture from a young age; from the age of four I was a student in French high schools. Paris in particular seduced me and continues to inspire me thanks to its history, its revolutionary past. It's a city made for artists, there is really a talented creative community here that inspires me a lot. Ireland, where I come from, also plays a major role in my inspirations, in particular because of our heritage closely linked to the fairy world, to nymphs, to mystical creatures. It is a country that cultivates a spirit of constant childish enchantment that I keep deeply inscribed in me. My art is, I think, a meeting of these two worlds and a fusion of these two cultures.
You are part of the young generation of female artists whose work has been featured on Instagram, where you invite your followers to discover your creative process. Do you think that social networks are an effective springboard for artists and contribute to making the contemporary art world less elitist?
Totally. Before, art was often confined to museums and galleries. Thanks to social networks, our Instagram page becomes our own virtual gallery, which can potentially attract the attention of anyone in the world. This is truly an asset for artists, and I particularly appreciate the interactivity and unexpected exchanges that this platform allows.
Femininity is the central element of your work. Who are the women who inspire you and feed your imagination?
Femininity is for me synonymous with courage, strength, ambition and magic. We had to break a lot of shackles and laws to be able to make our voices heard, to have the right to vote, to obtain rights equal to those of men even if everything is far from being won.
The careers of personalities such as Frida Kahlo, JK Rowling, Vivienne Westwood, Joan of Arc, Coco Chanel and Mary Wollstonecraft inspire me. As well as goddesses, witches, mythological creatures. Without forgetting the strong women around me, whether it's my mother, my sister, or my friends who sometimes invite themselves into the stories I tell through my paintings.
