Rebecca Hamlin Green
Rebecca Hamlin Green, May Featured Artist
Rebecca Hamlin Green’s animal based sculptures exude confidence and poise. You would never know that as an artist, she’s had to fight for her own creative conviction and vision.
Rebecca Hamlin Green (1982, Bristol, Pennsylvania) has always had a deep connection to animals. The birds she watches through binoculars (and then sketches), the cats and dogs she studies while they sleep and stretch. She’s always drawn, painted and sculpted them, because to her, they are the perfect vehicle for expression. Her most recent work is particularly introspective. The vulnerability and gesture of cormorants, weasels and sphinx cats of the past year reverberate the difficult times experienced by all. The animals seem to cling together for protection, huddling or otherwise shielding themselves from the outside. Hamlin Green, like most people, was deeply affected by the pandemic; the uncertainty and devastation it has caused. Her most recent pieces are more passive and exposed, and it’s been a break through for the artist. The pieces don’t need to address something bigger, they are just representative of her, her own identity and process.
Hamlin Green attended Bradley University for her Bachelor of Arts (in studio art, 2005), and received a Master of Fine Arts in 3-D Studies at the University of Arizona (2012). Both places connected her with strong female artists that encouraged her creative journey, but she still found the experience disheartening. Her work was often torn down during critiques because they were perceived as too feminine, or not serious enough. Her work was labeled not “edgy”. Hamlin Green figured out this coded word- her mostly male professors and fellow students preferred a male perspective. Hamlin Green saids there was a time in history that you were told you couldn’t do something because you were a woman, but now it’s hidden and more insidious. It took a lot of self-conviction for her to stay the course, but she managed to graduate and hold onto her own creative sensibilities.
Throughout history, female artists have often been relegated to painting what they were surrounded by, on materials that were available. This meant that the majority of these artists painted domestic scenes; children, still life and animals. Their work was small, painted and drawn on panels or canvas, which fit on a table top within their home space. Women’s artwork has been perpetually thought of as less important and meaningful, due to both subject matter and scale. Hamlin Green came right up against this in both the schooling and the exhibitions she’s been part of. Animals as an artistic focus are often dismissed outright for display or sale because of a crafty association. The artist decided that even though it would take extra effort to make the art establishment accept her work, it was worth it if she could create the way she wanted.
Hamlin Green was introduced to work by artist Beth Cavener during her graduate studies. She had an instant connection to her expressive sculptures. The well known artist’s work conveys fraught emotions through animals using gesture and scale. In 2018, Hamlin Green procured a spot in the coveted Cavener workshop title The Wildness Within, located at the Appalachian Center for Craft, in Smithville, Tennessee. Cavener was extremely gracious about providing insight into her process. From the clays she used, her building process to firing and glazing. Over the course of 10 days, Hamlin Green built up a sculptural pelican. She learned to create the animal from the inside out. Bones and muscles were kept in mind as the piece came together. The process gave her incredible insight as well as confidence. Cavener herself (who has works in museums and private collections all over the world) has also had trouble being taken seriously as a female artist. Her animal forms were seen as less than. Her 250 page book, titled ”Human, The Art of Beth Cavener” had trouble finding someone to write the forward. This shocked Hamlin Green, since Cavener’s work is so coveted. She decided that if someone like Cavener could continue to pursue her own creative vision through hurdles like this, so could she.
Over the past decade, Hamlin Green has worked up to larger and larger installations, featuring her animals in a variety of mediums. Her work mixes both domestic settings with ever expanding and lofty subject matter. Her solo show “Naturealism” at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2016 explored a home-like setting. The show featured Victorian styled accessories like rugs and ornate frames. Both animals and plants pushed into this protected inner space, confusing the order of things and leaving the viewer grappling with both a wondrous but uneasy feeling. A good deal of the artist’s installations play on this balance. A sense of recognition, but with an underlying or uncomfortable problem. Sometimes the issue has to do with environmental degradation, and at other times the claustrophobic nature of domestic life and its restrictions. Her most recent solo exhibition was at a far-flung gallery in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada. “Murmurations” are the undulating forms that flocks of starlings take on during flight. Her installation explored this mesmerizing aerial dance. The artist created more than 200 ceramic birds, undefined in breed. They paid homage to both Midwestern field birds and Canadian oceanic sea birds. This served as a way to connect the two regions. The birds on their own are susceptible to danger, but as a mururation, they gain protection. Not to mention the form Hamlin Green composed transcended into something strong and formidable. Her small, “feminine” animals became monumental and influential. All the things that her former professors said her work could not be.
Hamlin Green is finally starting to feel good in her creative skin. She’s settled into her particular process, and can roll with the punches if the work changes or doesn’t come out the way she first intended. Shedding the institutional standard has been hard, but she’s discovered that a lot of galleries and art spaces are looking for work from a different perspective anyway. Their audiences are instantly pulled into the animal forms, which is something special. The artist would love to explore and build work based off of Greek mythology as well as work by the Newcomb School of Art (opened in 1894 to teach women how to become decorative pottery artists). She hopes to continue following her many creative threads, forgiving and championing herself for doing something that both heals and uplifts her.
Rebecca Hamlin Green is a student and instructor at LSPS-LC (she is currently teaching the Friday night hand building class). Check out her incredible work on her website: