Artist Portrait Series | Rachel Edwards

Sometime or another we all think about or question our own identity. Rachel Edwards explores identity with her artworks entitled Creation/Destruction and Blender, found in the “It’s Only Natural” art exhibit. These renditions put on view the many emotions entailed within a struggle to establish one’s identity and accept it. Taking into consideration this profound theme, fine art photographer Linnea Lenkus pairs the artist’s statement with sophisticated portraits of Edwards.

Curator at Linus Galleries, Linnea Lenkus, strives to expose the mindset of artists that can further interpret their artistic message for an art exhibit. As a fine art photographer, her portrait fascination demonstrates how dedicated she is to photographing people throughout all stages of their lives. Her two portrait photography studios are located in Pasadena and Long Beach.

Watch a video of this art exhibit here.

“My large scale drawings use depictions of the human figure to address the influence of society and electronic media on personal versus public identity. The lengths that we go through to look a certain way as defined by the mass media have so much to do with our social interactions that I wanted to make a body of work that dealt with this subject. Placing near life-size figures on simple backgrounds allows me to confront the viewer with an image that is as much about the subject’s personality as it is the viewer’s. There is a narrative that runs through each work, some more obvious than others, and viewers are challenged to pay attention to slight nuances in order to uncover meaning.

I currently teach fine art at Canyon Crest Academy high school in North County San Diego, as well as at the Laguna College of Art + Design where I received my MFA. I have exhibited in SD, OrangeCounty, and Los Angeles galleries, and have art in various personal collections as well.

The photography session was fun! I am so used to being on the photographER side of the camera (taking images to work off of) that it was a little disconcerting being on the receiving end of the lens! But Linnea made it really laid-back and knew exactly what to say and what to have me do to get the images that she wanted.”

-Rachel Edwards