The New York Optimist
Publisher John Sebastian Interviews
CR Rousseau
CR Rousseau
Visual Artist / Abstract Expressionist
Studio Rousseau
206-941-0462 / [email protected]
www.studiorousseau.com
@studio.rousseau
TNYO: Hello CR, it is such a pleasure to meet you. Meeting artists from all over the world has been my great pleasure for my whole life. Yes, so here is a new perspective to consider, a new world of life within the life of art. My first question is what does art mean to you?
CR Rousseau: Happy to meet you! Thank you for having me. What does art mean to me? I think of art in simple terms. Art is an expression of humanity. Art serves an emotional purpose. It is energetic and hopeful. It contains a universal thread that connects me to myself, to everyone and everything in a timeless way. And for me, personally, I love art that has a narrative created with skill, imagination and courage.
TNYO: How long have you been making art?
CR Rousseau: I’ve been painting and creating art all my life. Though I was recently recognized as an “emerging painter” in Italy - which honestly, feels pretty great - you could say I’ve always been an artist. It’s parallel to the idea when people say, “you don’t have a soul, you are one”. I’m continually working to develop my creative abilities and broaden my imagination. Growing up, I loved color and I was always marked as “the artist” in school. I had an affinity with Abstract Expressionism, though I had a wide range of interests in the visual arts. Whether consciously aware of it or not, I’ve always been about art and creativity in various forms, including in design and fashion.
Somehow, all the dots have connected in my career path. That’s pretty lucky. In describing my professional trajectory, it’s more like a circle: I’m a painter, who became a graphic designer, who became a communicator, who became a painter. All these experiences continue to inform my work. For example, at one time, I was a communicator in scientific research, investigating the environment positively impacted my earlier landscape paintings. Later I spent a “New York minute” or two in haute couture. That work, along with my lifelong love of fashion and design inspired and contributed to my present body of work in abstract expressionism. This series consists of interpreting runway moments and fashion inspiration onto larger scale, emotive, color-driven abstracts. Looking back, everything connects, yet it feels forward-thinking and fresh to me.
TNYO: Describe your work in three words.
CR Rousseau: Vibrant. Contemplative. Dramatic.
TNYO: Your work seems to border on impressionism and figurative, do you agree with the idea of categories and names that describe art?
CR Rousseau:In the past I was challenged by categorization of my art. Galleries I worked with wanted one voice, one style. And I get that. Contemporary art and art markets need organization. It helps individuals become familiar with and appreciate different types of art. It’s easier to market. However, it’s a confining perspective. It’s limiting in that it doesn’t necessarily create space for artistic innovation and growth, and what is art, if not exploration? I like to think in the frame of “bodies of work” and I’m hopeful that art categories and definitions will continue to evolve, just as language does. In fact, it’s the evolution of my work that I’m most excited about.
TNYO: What would you categorize your art as?
CR Rousseau: It depends upon the body of work, for sure. At present my work can be categorized as abstract expressionism. This super-secret series is still under wraps and it’s really fun. I’m using vibrant colors and subtle textures with a little New York Fashion Week à la carte to deliver a sense of a smart, sexy, sculptural and spirited style.
Lately, I enjoy to breaking away from traditional formats, maybe blending them up a bit to create a personalized visual language - I guess that’s basically abstract expressionism, isn’t it?! I like to reinterpret a feeling, a moment, a place, stylize the shapes I see, imbue them with blended colors and wrap them up into abstract forms. Sometimes I layer for depth so it feels like you could walk or even somehow float into this visual space.
TNYO: Where are you from CR?
CR Rousseau: I’m originally from Washington State. I lived in Seattle for a long time, but recently moved to an island in the Puget Sound called Bainbridge Island. These days, if I’m working in San Francisco, New York or even Seattle, it requires a ferry. That’s different. I will say taking a boat super early in the morning is a lovely way to start your journey. The colors of dawn and dusk can be vibrant… especially when they are reflecting on water. Beautiful.
TNYO: Has your past influenced you, does your present influence you? Or maybe more importantly, what is it that drives you to make art ?
CR Rousseau: The past definitely influences me; it motivates me. I try to harness hindsight into insight for my work, but mostly I look forward to inform my work. I meditate. I work hard at keeping my mind and my heart open and calibrated but, mostly, I do my best to get out of my own
way so I can be a vessel for creative energy to flow through.
Painting can be challenging, sometimes more, sometimes less, but I mostly enjoy the challenge. I mean, maybe not so much if my brushes and I aren’t getting along, but that happens with any love affair, I think. Quite honestly, it still requires a lot of courage for me to start a blank canvas. I’m not sure why I still wrestle with that, but once I do get started, I’m absolutely driven.
TNYO: In your work I feel like I am in a dream, A wonderful escape from all realities that I know of.
How do you come to your conclusions your solutions your final decisions?
CR Rousseau: Thank you for your kind words, John. In my past landscape work, I wanted the art to not be the place it is, but a memory of the place it is…like when you wake up in the morning and you can remember elements of a dream, but the emotional representation is a little diffused, maybe soft around the edges, a little blurry even. It’s the emotional aftertaste of the experience of the place you’ve been.
I used to conclude my final decisions with a lot of planning and forethought, as well as photographic study. But, today I conclude my final decisions with intuition. I am painting “by chance”, not by a strong, overarching plan. It’s interesting. It’s changed things. The larger the canvas, the bigger the conversation I feel I’m having with the canvas. So I work to keep myself open, focused and relatively undistracted. And I listen. I listen for my intuition to say, “ok, this is where we put the brush down now… it’s complete”. I do know if I don’t listen to that voice, it usually doesn’t fare well for me or the painting. Perhaps that’s what happens after you’ve done this for over ten years, you listen and/or you get the feeling and you just know.
TNYO: You’ve talked about the emotional impact of art, do you remember a time when a piece of art, maybe unexpectedly shocked you or made a big impression on you?
CR Rousseau: Yes! One time when I was in school in London, I found myself at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square when I should’ve been in class. One of the first pieces I came across was a work of realism unlike anything I’d seen. It was religious in nature and not something I’d expect to be interested in and its affect surprised me. I don’t even remember the title or painter, but I do remember it is the only painting that has ever brought me to tears. The humanity of it, the loss, feeling the anguish it portrayed without me trying to feel anything, I mean, I was a happenstance observer! It made my heart ache and I’ll never forget it. It is beyond amazing to me how art can speak to us.
TNYO: Coming back to your studio today, with the new work you are creating now, what mediums are you working in?
CR Rousseau: I’m working in oil primarily today. With past series, I’ve been known to play with all forms of mixed media, including acrylic, watercolor, ink, pencil, print, digital, you name it. I love to discover new methods or experimental techniques with my work.
TNYO: If you were not an artist what would you be?
CR Rousseau: If I were not a painter, I’d be a sculptor. That’s still the arts isn’t it. Actually, if we’re doing it right, I’d like to think that living could generally be recognized as an artistic endeavor. But, if I weren’t an artist, I’d likely pursue design, possibly industrial design. A savvy fashion designer I worked with once told me she aspired to elevate the human experience, that resonated with me. With design, there creative ways to contribute and make meaningful impact improving the lives of others.
TNYO: What is your favorite color?
CR Rousseau: Ha! That totally depends on my mood! Thinking of color as energy - I love to explore visual, chromatic vibration and how it all makes me feel. I’m all about creating harmonies, finding bold contrasts and sometimes classic color schemes with an unexpected twist.
Right now I’m loving vibrant red and fuchsia together. Red can feel like love, bravery, compassion and luck - among many other things - and while hot fuchsia has had a long fashion moment in 2022 and still is, I’m actually talking about fuchsia fuchsia - it’s softer and is the one found in its name-sake flowering plant first discovered in the Caribbean. It’s joyful, Other colors I can’t get enough of are turquoise and sea green, think vibrancy and versatility. Then there’s all of the blues in all their hues - often I find them to be calming and serene.
I also love powdery pinks and lusciously deep pinks with all their loveliness, new beginnings, their layered hues of sexiness on Valentine’s Days and how it can convey the hope of spring. And oranges and corals - yes, in pops and punches, often evoking warmth and good energy. Ah! We could talk about color a very long time!
One of my favorite quotes about color comes from the Master of Color himself, Claude Monet. His personal statement seems to sum it up brilliantly. He said, “Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment.” While there will never be another Monet, his statement hits a vein for many of us, no matter our level of ability or talent.
TNYO: With your art practice and working with galleries, as a woman, do your looks help or hurt you?
CR Rousseau: To broadly answer your question, clearly - in our culture, being young and attractive in any industry gets attention. And while I think that might help get attention in different instances - yes, it might get a door or two to open, sure, but only for a relative moment in the big picture. True success in the arts and in the art world comes down to creating quality work that resonates and being prolific about it.
TNYO: Will your art take new directions over the next 5 - 10 years?
CR Rousseau: Absolutely. There are always new ideas and visions to be explored! I’m sure my art will reflect those changes in light of whatever comes my way. What that direction looks like, I have no idea. I do know it will be interesting.
TNYO: Do you listen to music when your painting, if so what is your favorite music to listen to when you paint and do you have a music pick for our readers?
CR Rousseau: I do listen to music when I’m painting, though sometimes if deeply focused, I like working in quiet. If I’m working on larger pieces, there will be music. I love so many types of music. These days I’m listening to a little old school R&B, some electro house instrumental tracks, classical piano for clarity, old school hip hop, a little pop, Motown, basically all the classics from 1950’s 1960’s 1970’s and 1980’s… and then some house with bass, a lot of Latin music, Latin jazz, swing and big band, funk, classical electronica (e.g., Calvin Harris) and a little soca here and there.
For your readers looking for music they may or may not know about, I recommend Tay Powers’ song Smoke (Take Up Space) and if you don’t know Jill Scott, A Long Walk and Golden is a nice energy. Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse’s Valerie always picks me up. Telepatía, by Kali Chis and Un Dia by Dua Lipa and Bad Bunny always feels good. Black Coffee, who I learned about from a San Franciscan Uber driver, is amazing. I particularly like “Superman”. It’s fun to learn about music I’ve never heard of or to play music I know and love to get a good, creative atmosphere happening.
TNYO: Thank you for talking with me and all of us at New York Optimist. It’s good to connect with working artists. I appreciate your time and I look forward to seeing your new series launch this autumn 2023!
CR Rousseau: Thank you, John. That means a lot. It feels exciting to enter this new phase in my work. Thank you for sharing your good energy.
CR Rousseau: Happy to meet you! Thank you for having me. What does art mean to me? I think of art in simple terms. Art is an expression of humanity. Art serves an emotional purpose. It is energetic and hopeful. It contains a universal thread that connects me to myself, to everyone and everything in a timeless way. And for me, personally, I love art that has a narrative created with skill, imagination and courage.
TNYO: How long have you been making art?
CR Rousseau: I’ve been painting and creating art all my life. Though I was recently recognized as an “emerging painter” in Italy - which honestly, feels pretty great - you could say I’ve always been an artist. It’s parallel to the idea when people say, “you don’t have a soul, you are one”. I’m continually working to develop my creative abilities and broaden my imagination. Growing up, I loved color and I was always marked as “the artist” in school. I had an affinity with Abstract Expressionism, though I had a wide range of interests in the visual arts. Whether consciously aware of it or not, I’ve always been about art and creativity in various forms, including in design and fashion.
Somehow, all the dots have connected in my career path. That’s pretty lucky. In describing my professional trajectory, it’s more like a circle: I’m a painter, who became a graphic designer, who became a communicator, who became a painter. All these experiences continue to inform my work. For example, at one time, I was a communicator in scientific research, investigating the environment positively impacted my earlier landscape paintings. Later I spent a “New York minute” or two in haute couture. That work, along with my lifelong love of fashion and design inspired and contributed to my present body of work in abstract expressionism. This series consists of interpreting runway moments and fashion inspiration onto larger scale, emotive, color-driven abstracts. Looking back, everything connects, yet it feels forward-thinking and fresh to me.
TNYO: Describe your work in three words.
CR Rousseau: Vibrant. Contemplative. Dramatic.
TNYO: Your work seems to border on impressionism and figurative, do you agree with the idea of categories and names that describe art?
CR Rousseau:In the past I was challenged by categorization of my art. Galleries I worked with wanted one voice, one style. And I get that. Contemporary art and art markets need organization. It helps individuals become familiar with and appreciate different types of art. It’s easier to market. However, it’s a confining perspective. It’s limiting in that it doesn’t necessarily create space for artistic innovation and growth, and what is art, if not exploration? I like to think in the frame of “bodies of work” and I’m hopeful that art categories and definitions will continue to evolve, just as language does. In fact, it’s the evolution of my work that I’m most excited about.
TNYO: What would you categorize your art as?
CR Rousseau: It depends upon the body of work, for sure. At present my work can be categorized as abstract expressionism. This super-secret series is still under wraps and it’s really fun. I’m using vibrant colors and subtle textures with a little New York Fashion Week à la carte to deliver a sense of a smart, sexy, sculptural and spirited style.
Lately, I enjoy to breaking away from traditional formats, maybe blending them up a bit to create a personalized visual language - I guess that’s basically abstract expressionism, isn’t it?! I like to reinterpret a feeling, a moment, a place, stylize the shapes I see, imbue them with blended colors and wrap them up into abstract forms. Sometimes I layer for depth so it feels like you could walk or even somehow float into this visual space.
TNYO: Where are you from CR?
CR Rousseau: I’m originally from Washington State. I lived in Seattle for a long time, but recently moved to an island in the Puget Sound called Bainbridge Island. These days, if I’m working in San Francisco, New York or even Seattle, it requires a ferry. That’s different. I will say taking a boat super early in the morning is a lovely way to start your journey. The colors of dawn and dusk can be vibrant… especially when they are reflecting on water. Beautiful.
TNYO: Has your past influenced you, does your present influence you? Or maybe more importantly, what is it that drives you to make art ?
CR Rousseau: The past definitely influences me; it motivates me. I try to harness hindsight into insight for my work, but mostly I look forward to inform my work. I meditate. I work hard at keeping my mind and my heart open and calibrated but, mostly, I do my best to get out of my own
way so I can be a vessel for creative energy to flow through.
Painting can be challenging, sometimes more, sometimes less, but I mostly enjoy the challenge. I mean, maybe not so much if my brushes and I aren’t getting along, but that happens with any love affair, I think. Quite honestly, it still requires a lot of courage for me to start a blank canvas. I’m not sure why I still wrestle with that, but once I do get started, I’m absolutely driven.
TNYO: In your work I feel like I am in a dream, A wonderful escape from all realities that I know of.
How do you come to your conclusions your solutions your final decisions?
CR Rousseau: Thank you for your kind words, John. In my past landscape work, I wanted the art to not be the place it is, but a memory of the place it is…like when you wake up in the morning and you can remember elements of a dream, but the emotional representation is a little diffused, maybe soft around the edges, a little blurry even. It’s the emotional aftertaste of the experience of the place you’ve been.
I used to conclude my final decisions with a lot of planning and forethought, as well as photographic study. But, today I conclude my final decisions with intuition. I am painting “by chance”, not by a strong, overarching plan. It’s interesting. It’s changed things. The larger the canvas, the bigger the conversation I feel I’m having with the canvas. So I work to keep myself open, focused and relatively undistracted. And I listen. I listen for my intuition to say, “ok, this is where we put the brush down now… it’s complete”. I do know if I don’t listen to that voice, it usually doesn’t fare well for me or the painting. Perhaps that’s what happens after you’ve done this for over ten years, you listen and/or you get the feeling and you just know.
TNYO: You’ve talked about the emotional impact of art, do you remember a time when a piece of art, maybe unexpectedly shocked you or made a big impression on you?
CR Rousseau: Yes! One time when I was in school in London, I found myself at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square when I should’ve been in class. One of the first pieces I came across was a work of realism unlike anything I’d seen. It was religious in nature and not something I’d expect to be interested in and its affect surprised me. I don’t even remember the title or painter, but I do remember it is the only painting that has ever brought me to tears. The humanity of it, the loss, feeling the anguish it portrayed without me trying to feel anything, I mean, I was a happenstance observer! It made my heart ache and I’ll never forget it. It is beyond amazing to me how art can speak to us.
TNYO: Coming back to your studio today, with the new work you are creating now, what mediums are you working in?
CR Rousseau: I’m working in oil primarily today. With past series, I’ve been known to play with all forms of mixed media, including acrylic, watercolor, ink, pencil, print, digital, you name it. I love to discover new methods or experimental techniques with my work.
TNYO: If you were not an artist what would you be?
CR Rousseau: If I were not a painter, I’d be a sculptor. That’s still the arts isn’t it. Actually, if we’re doing it right, I’d like to think that living could generally be recognized as an artistic endeavor. But, if I weren’t an artist, I’d likely pursue design, possibly industrial design. A savvy fashion designer I worked with once told me she aspired to elevate the human experience, that resonated with me. With design, there creative ways to contribute and make meaningful impact improving the lives of others.
TNYO: What is your favorite color?
CR Rousseau: Ha! That totally depends on my mood! Thinking of color as energy - I love to explore visual, chromatic vibration and how it all makes me feel. I’m all about creating harmonies, finding bold contrasts and sometimes classic color schemes with an unexpected twist.
Right now I’m loving vibrant red and fuchsia together. Red can feel like love, bravery, compassion and luck - among many other things - and while hot fuchsia has had a long fashion moment in 2022 and still is, I’m actually talking about fuchsia fuchsia - it’s softer and is the one found in its name-sake flowering plant first discovered in the Caribbean. It’s joyful, Other colors I can’t get enough of are turquoise and sea green, think vibrancy and versatility. Then there’s all of the blues in all their hues - often I find them to be calming and serene.
I also love powdery pinks and lusciously deep pinks with all their loveliness, new beginnings, their layered hues of sexiness on Valentine’s Days and how it can convey the hope of spring. And oranges and corals - yes, in pops and punches, often evoking warmth and good energy. Ah! We could talk about color a very long time!
One of my favorite quotes about color comes from the Master of Color himself, Claude Monet. His personal statement seems to sum it up brilliantly. He said, “Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment.” While there will never be another Monet, his statement hits a vein for many of us, no matter our level of ability or talent.
TNYO: With your art practice and working with galleries, as a woman, do your looks help or hurt you?
CR Rousseau: To broadly answer your question, clearly - in our culture, being young and attractive in any industry gets attention. And while I think that might help get attention in different instances - yes, it might get a door or two to open, sure, but only for a relative moment in the big picture. True success in the arts and in the art world comes down to creating quality work that resonates and being prolific about it.
TNYO: Will your art take new directions over the next 5 - 10 years?
CR Rousseau: Absolutely. There are always new ideas and visions to be explored! I’m sure my art will reflect those changes in light of whatever comes my way. What that direction looks like, I have no idea. I do know it will be interesting.
TNYO: Do you listen to music when your painting, if so what is your favorite music to listen to when you paint and do you have a music pick for our readers?
CR Rousseau: I do listen to music when I’m painting, though sometimes if deeply focused, I like working in quiet. If I’m working on larger pieces, there will be music. I love so many types of music. These days I’m listening to a little old school R&B, some electro house instrumental tracks, classical piano for clarity, old school hip hop, a little pop, Motown, basically all the classics from 1950’s 1960’s 1970’s and 1980’s… and then some house with bass, a lot of Latin music, Latin jazz, swing and big band, funk, classical electronica (e.g., Calvin Harris) and a little soca here and there.
For your readers looking for music they may or may not know about, I recommend Tay Powers’ song Smoke (Take Up Space) and if you don’t know Jill Scott, A Long Walk and Golden is a nice energy. Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse’s Valerie always picks me up. Telepatía, by Kali Chis and Un Dia by Dua Lipa and Bad Bunny always feels good. Black Coffee, who I learned about from a San Franciscan Uber driver, is amazing. I particularly like “Superman”. It’s fun to learn about music I’ve never heard of or to play music I know and love to get a good, creative atmosphere happening.
TNYO: Thank you for talking with me and all of us at New York Optimist. It’s good to connect with working artists. I appreciate your time and I look forward to seeing your new series launch this autumn 2023!
CR Rousseau: Thank you, John. That means a lot. It feels exciting to enter this new phase in my work. Thank you for sharing your good energy.
"READY TO CATCH WIND"
36 in x 48 in | Mixed Media on Canvas
$ 2100
36 in x 48 in | Mixed Media on Canvas
$ 2100
Pulling bold yet peaceful color palettes together, CR Rousseau creates dreamlike paintings with play and discovery. She likes to explore styles and challenge previous approaches using oil, acrylic, water color, ink and all forms of mixed media making each series unique.
Once informally referred to as the Eighth of "The Group of Seven", CR Rousseau is privileged to be thought of as an American cousin to this distinctive style. Elegantly breaking away from traditional landscapes, she embraces a personalized sense of the natural world with twists of imbued color wrapped into abstract forms. This work was integral to the evolution of her new abstract expressionist work (not yet shown online).
Exhibiting primarily in Seattle, Edmonds and Bainbridge Island, Washington, as well as in Sausalito, San Francisco, Carmel-by-the-Sea and Santa Barbara, California. Her work can also be found in private collections and in art fairs .
Once informally referred to as the Eighth of "The Group of Seven", CR Rousseau is privileged to be thought of as an American cousin to this distinctive style. Elegantly breaking away from traditional landscapes, she embraces a personalized sense of the natural world with twists of imbued color wrapped into abstract forms. This work was integral to the evolution of her new abstract expressionist work (not yet shown online).
Exhibiting primarily in Seattle, Edmonds and Bainbridge Island, Washington, as well as in Sausalito, San Francisco, Carmel-by-the-Sea and Santa Barbara, California. Her work can also be found in private collections and in art fairs .
"CRUISING SCENIC"
36 in x 48 in | Mixed Media on Canvas
Sold *Limited hand-embellished giclée available.
36 in x 48 in | Mixed Media on Canvas
Sold *Limited hand-embellished giclée available.
“Photograph by Sehee Kim Studios"
https://studiorousseau.com/work
CR Rousseau
Visual Artist / Abstract Expressionist
Studio Rousseau
206-941-0462 / [email protected]
www.studiorousseau.com
@studio.rousseau
