Rebecca Vaughan didn’t go to college planning to become an artist, yet she’s a successful artist and leader of an art nonprofit
丽贝卡·沃恩(Rebecca Vaughan)从未想过自己有一天会成为一名成功的丹佛艺术家.
Rebecca Vaughan. 在页面的顶部是一张装置作品“不完全是爱情花园”的照片." Images courtesy of Rebecca Vaughan.
他是科罗拉多人，通常对数学比对艺术更感兴趣, 沃恩在博彩平台推荐开始了她的旅程，因为她的养父母经常在家里接待外国交换学生. Vaughan had a keen interest in studying abroad from a young age, 高中毕业后在荷兰生活了一年, chose to study French at CU Boulder, with every intention of going back to Europe to live there.
As one of her electives, Vaughan took a sculpture class with Andrew Connelly, a graduate student at the time. The rest is history. 如今，沃恩在这家专注于艺术的非营利组织担任艺术总监 PlatteForum and creating sculptural art and installations that, while successful, she later admits she is rarely pleased with.
对于一个从未上过艺术课，对技术任务很感兴趣的人来说, she appreciated the challenge that sculpture presented. 正是这门雕塑课说服了沃恩留在博彩平台推荐攻读美术专业, eventually graduating with her BFA in sculpture in 1994.
当时，沃恩毫不犹豫地参与了博鳌亚洲论坛的项目. “一旦我爱上了它，我就深深地融入了这个社区.”
She was an assistant for artist Linda Herritt, worked at the CU Art Museum, and never hesitated to seize an opportunity provided by CU Boulder. 其中一个机会是跟随CU的博彩平台推荐艺术家学习, including internationally recognized artist Andrés Serrano, best known for his controversial 1987 photograph “Piss Christ.”
通过触摸它们，把它们拆开，再弄清楚如何把它们重新组装起来，我对它们的理解更加深刻.”
—Rebecca Vaughan
但沃恩在博彩平台推荐的一些最丰富多彩、最具影响力的记忆来自她已故的教授, Antonette “Toni” Rosato and Garrison Roots. She describes the two as having a good cop/bad cop interaction with their students; Rosato acting as the doting mother and Roots as the “tough love, kick your ass, call-you-on-your-stuff kind of professor.”
This dynamic, as well as the duo’s focus on interdisciplinary studies, 塑造了她成为一个好奇的艺术家，后来被卡耐基梅隆大学著名的艺术硕士项目录取, she says.
在卡耐基梅隆大学，她深入学习机器人和历史课，这对她的艺术创作有很大帮助. “通过触摸它们，把它们拆开，再弄清楚如何把它们重新组装起来，我对它们有了更多的了解,” Vaughan says.
This technical drive, combined with a desire to weave topics from history, women’s studies and social justice issues, is what influences her artwork most.
Being a successful, working artist in Denver for more than two decades, Vaughan is intimately familiar with its art community, 并将这些知识带到了她的第二份工作——PlatteForum的艺术总监.
这个非营利组织是丹佛的一个青年发展和艺术家驻留项目，在那里，资源不足的年轻人能够与驻留的艺术家一起创作艺术. Artists working with PlatteForum range from local to international. 2017年，他们邀请了凯特·斯佩尔(Kate Speer)，一位来自博彩平台推荐的丹佛舞者. In her role as artistic director, 沃恩采用了在科罗拉多大学时灌输给她的跨学科方法.
“我最喜欢PlatteForum的地方……实际上是围绕着年轻和新兴艺术家.” At the nonprofit, 沃恩能够帮助艺术家和年轻人找到一种融合艺术和行动主义的方法, things that Vaughan says are “very specific to my art work. 但是当我来到PlatteForum的时候，我感觉自己又回到了正轨.”
对于沃恩来说，完全沉浸在一个角色中是很容易的——练习艺术家或艺术总监. 相反，她无缝地平衡了两者，同时也让其中一个通知另一个. At PlatteForum, where she is the only professional artist on staff, 沃恩认为自己是丹佛艺术界的代表.
Many artists come to PlatteForum with a vision that they are unsure of how to execute; Vaughan is there to help make their vision a reality. And as a working artist, Vaughan不断从PlatteForum的其他艺术家那里获得灵感, 让她学习新媒体和技术，最终帮助她发展自己的作品.
Being around so many artist-activists at PlatteForum, 作为一名艺术家，沃恩感到更有勇气创作专注于政治和个人问题的作品.
其中一件作品是2012年以她为主角的装置作品《博彩平台推荐》(Not Exactly Love Garden) website. 在这篇文章中，沃恩反复思考了“不完全”这个词及其可能的含义. For Vaughan, “不完全”这个词是指同时做两件事——不完全是一件事, but not completely the other.
她专注于这个想法，同时也探索了欲望和排斥的主题, 沃恩在她的作品中经常探讨这个问题，作为她多年来寻找生母和被收养问题的延伸. From this, Vaughan decided to create a “not exactly” garden.
The pink, ornate shapes on the wall are composed of 130 grow lights, and a lollipop crabapple tree is a stand-in for the human figure. The tree leans towards the grow lights for sustenance, 希望它能提供它生长和发展所需的光. 然而，最终，生长灯不够，海棠树死了.
With “Not Exactly Love Garden,” Vaughan examines what it means to nurture, or fail at nurturing, while also creating a vibrant and alluring environment.
中断三年之后，沃恩准备重新开始创作和展示作品. Currently, she’s working on a collaboration with Jennifer Pettus, another CU Boulder graduate, set for summer 2020 at the Arvada Center.
When asked what motivates her to continue creating art, Vaughan makes a shocking admission: “I don’t like my own art.”
When pressed, it becomes clear what Vaughan means. 她不是一个受虐狂，致力于创作她余生都不喜欢的艺术. Rather, 她是一个完美主义者，不断追求以一种与她脑海中的图像和信息完美同步的方式操纵材料.
Through laughter, 沃恩承认:“我还没有把它完美地匹配起来……但我已经看到了它发生的迹象。.”
These glimpses, 有机会创造一些无缝地综合材料和概念的东西, are what keeps Vaughan going.
