Translating the Personal to the Universal
For painter Rebecca Wasilewski (CFA’07), honesty is her muse.
Rebecca Wasilewski (CFA’07) spent a year studying in the College of Arts and Sciences before she realized that painting was the only field where she could synthesize all her academic interests, worldly concerns, and personality traits. As a painting major, her first objective is to make a beautiful object. “Thematically, I constantly strive for complete honesty in all my ideas and forms,” she says. “I believe that through complete honesty, anything that is very personal, intimate, or specific to my life will translate into more universal human themes, ideas, and feelings.”
When Wasilewski was in Venice last spring on a study abroad program, she became interested in the surrounding architecture and the themes it evoked — stability versus decay and modernity versus antiquity — and her relationship as a human to these structures. Currently, she is creating a series of observational works that combine still life and the figure. “I am using them symbolically to build metaphors pertaining to my current questioning of identity, uncertain future, and my struggle between my desire for stability and further exploration and change,” she says.
The featured artwork was selected by the BU Art League, a student-run group based in the CFA school of visual arts. The organization helps undergraduate student artists learn more about the art world than they might normally learn in the classroom. The Art League tries to build a strong community through monthly meetings, exhibition opportunities, and a monthly newsletter. For more information, contact league founder Anne Albagli (CFA’08) at anniea@bu.edu.
Vicky Waltz can be reached at vwaltz@bu.edu.