Welcome to the Sun Prairie, WI home studio of Rebecca Kautz.

It was an unseasonably warm day when I visited Rebecca in her Sun Prairie home and I was excited for the chance to see this prolific artist's studio. Even better, I got the chance to see her current studio, in the basement of her home, and her nearly complete studio, built in her backyard. 

Kautz holds a Master of Fine Arts from University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. She works in a variety of media with an International and National exhibition record that spans over three decades of artistic practice. These decades of work and her evolution as an artist are on display in the stacks and shelves and drawers of drawings and sketches and paintings. It was incredible to see how prolific  and how dedicated to her art she is. 

Below you will see photos from her basement studio and her new studio, a garden shed that her father built for her. This backyard studio is like a little garden shed, where light freely pours in- a dreamy place to create. 

WOODWALK 

Can you describe your work in three words?

REBECCA

Allegorical, surreal, semi-autobiographical

WOODWALK 

What do you love about your chosen medium?

REBECCA

I use acrylic and mixed media in these pieces and this allows for a range of applications, techniques and color variety.

WOODWALK

Is there another medium you'd enjoy exploring?

REBECCA

In my college days I worked in clay and enjoy the tactility of building 3d things with my hands that take up space. Im primarily focused on painting now.

WOODWALK

Tell us about the body of work you have at Woodwalk this year?

REBECCA

This collection of recent works are examples of my interest in contemporary still Life and figuration. I’m interested in meshing my personal experience and elevating it to Mythological Proportions. My Midwest upbringing and personal narratives have evolved into a vocabulary of symbolic imagery such as the woodstove. I’m interested in the fundamentals of human existance: relationships, life, love, death and the dreams. 

“Familiar Terrain” where you see large teeth buried beneath the ground, is based off a dream of a forest of teeth. I interpret this to be a common existential, anxious concern of how we live and what we leave when we are gone. “The Way of Things” explores a similar concept of the beauty and conflict of transitions.

WOODWALK

What are some consistent aspects of your creative process?

REBECCA

I am an avid drawer and make lots of crude sketches whenever I have a faint idea of an image I’d like to recreate. I build more complex works from these notations. It is a form of journaling for me.

WOODWALK 

What does your ideal day in the studio look like?

REBECCA

Morning time after coffee and breakfast. I like a full day in the studio because it can be hard for me to transition to beginning a work. I putter around in my studio fussing about when starting a new work-but when I eventually get started I have a hard time stopping.

WOODWALK

If you could go anywhere in the world for a creative residency, where would you go?

REBECCA

My hometown in Princeton, Illinois. My family is all there and Im preoccupied with thoughts of this place. I often paint references of my childhood, objects, the homes in the town and often when I’m working in my studio my thoughts go there. I am getting older and so are my parents.

WOODWALK

What inspires or influences you?

REBECCA

Other artists with strong artistic voices, art history, social issues and concerns, places familiar to me, my family and lived experiences.

WOODWALK

How has your work evolved over the years?

REBECCA

My story and narrative is more developed and my aesthetic style is more cohesive.