Rachel Comminos: Going Through It

From Rojo Gallery:

“Rachel’s Bio: Rachel Comminos is a multidisciplinary visual artist based out of Harlingen, Texas, currently focusing on textile work and design. With a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from the University of Texas at San Antonio, Comminos began to seriously explore the fiber arts as a medium when she was pregnant with her son, integrating the idea of traditional femininity into her art practice through materiality. Organically painting with yarn, transforming ideas and emotions into physical objects provides a comfort within her day-to-day chaos of being a mother to a toddler. Rachel is the Co-Owner and Co-Director of Comminos Studio and The Comminos Center for the Arts in Downtown Harlingen, Texas. Comminos’ work can be found in private and public collections, such as the Texas National Bank, and she has exhibited throughout the state of Texas.

Rachel’s Statement for Going Through It:

In the few years leading up to the show, “Going Through It” has been a recurring theme in my life. During this period, there has been a lot for me to process and think about. There have been trials, tribulations, and upsets that occur, and things I feel more broadly through my life being a woman in South Texas, a mother in America. I translate my deep dives of self-exploration into beauty, repetition, pattern, and texture by creating these physical objects. Each of my pieces represent a moment of time and a mindset. An experience made abstracted with yarn, needles, and a variety of scissors.

In my abstractions through fiber work, I open a wider narrative and invite my audience to relate to the familiar found within my work. Yarn choices your grandmother could have made, patterns or colors found in your favorite sweater, your mother’s needlework. The warmth and comfort of the materials themselves connects us to moments, memories, experiences in our lives. My current art practice connects me to my familial penchant for crafting which after a lifetime of making things feels instinctual. During my artistic process is when I communicate within myself, and in showing these works, I am communicating pieces of me. There is no disconnect between myself and my work. I’m right there, and I’m going through it.”