Meet The Artist
3/10/2024
Statement
My art is a meditation. Both in the repetitive and slow practice and in the way it takes time to unfold and welcome the viewer in. Working with randomness in abstraction I’ve found that the combined layers of paint and embroidery combine to create a scene of what might be living things. By working without a plan I leave room for each viewer to connect to my work in their own unique way and as such it can act as a mirror into the mind. Rorschach is referenced more than once but throughout the work I have left enough vagueness to provoke thought and questions. Hopefully my viewers can experience some of the same meditation, and mindful insight that made the process of creating it so rewarding.
Biography
Colin Reinagel was born in upstate New York in the small farming community of Spencerport. Raised in a very religious home, christianity became the spiritual jumping off point when his sexuality created a divide between himself and what he had been taught. Since then the exploration into all that the spiritual world has to offer including but not limited to Taoism, deep meditation, Buddhism, Ayahuasca, Yoga, and more, has given him profound new perspectives on life, and what it means to be alive. With a great respect for all living things, Colin set out to celebrate the underappreciated as he always has through prison letter writing campaigns and a life of volunteering where others would instead judge and even condemn their fellow members of mankind, which drove him to find inspiration from the under celebrated organisms that make living possible: the microscopic world.
In his artistic journey he began with the experience of music as both a profoundly emotional and spiritual experience for the performers and listeners alike. Seeking to create that experience he began very early in life writing songs and composing pieces; however, once he entered the formal world of education for music he was almost immediately disenfranchised by the exclusionary elitism of academia, and found that too much education stifles and has attempted to kill the truest spirit of creativity. Moving from there through life, the Covid 19 pandemic left Colin with nothing but more and more time on his hands. This opened his mind to the idea of again expressing his creative force onto the world. This time through the slow and methodical practice of embroidery. Entering a trance like meditation this again fulfilled the spiritual nature inherent to all creative efforts and reinvigorated his love of creating.
In the 5 years since Colin’s work has appeared in a number of online galleries and the McCord Gallery and Cultural Center in Chicago. In addition to embroidery, painting, and everything that makes up his signature style of work, Colin has begun to explore sculpture and fashion as well. HIs process so far has involved the release of control and taking the needle and brush one movement at a time simply wondering “What will this look like” and he is open to taking his work into experiential and/or performance based projects with the same open curiosity to whatever comes next for him in his artistic, spiritual, healing, and personal journey.
Colin Reinagel
Contact Information:
Phone: 1+585-694-5803
Email: cjreinagel@gmail.com
Born in Spencerport, NY in 1998. Currently residing in Henderson, NV.
Exhibitions:
McCord Gallery and Cultural Center:
Common Threads: Art & Fiber exhibit, November 2023
Las Laguna Online Gallery:
Small Works Show, December 2023
Light, Space, Time Gallery: Patterns, Textures, Forms Art Exhibition, October 2023