Ana Maria Rendich is an Argentinian-American artist based in Spotsylvania, Virginia. She studied Scenic Design at Universidad del Salvador and Costume Design at the Instituto Superior de Arte at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, later continuing her education at the National Academy of Design in New York. Her work, which explores themes of interiority, displacement, and collective memory, has been featured in solo and juried exhibitions and is held in private and institutional collections, including the University of Virginia. Through layered visual narratives, she invites viewers to reflect on personal and universal experiences. @anarendich
How did the cultural landscape of Argentina shape your creative vision? I was born in Argentina. I was raised in Merlo; at that time, it was a small town in the province of Buenos Aires. I grow up in an extended family. My grandma, my mom and dad created this beautiful environment of “constant moving”, or reading, or helping or playing but I had to do something…that was my first encounter with making stuff… When I was growing up, we received at my home several international students. Through them I learned that the world is more connected that I thought and we were not so different about “unspoken “rules of respect, empathy and the importance of having a supporting family… One of these students had a brother who was a Vietnan soldier and told me about the Vietnan war in detail… He was still mourning the loss of this brother, who committed suicide after he returned from combat. It impacted me profoundly; I was only 12 years old.
I remember another beautiful human being, Vance. He is the son of an American and a Indian- American lady. I loved to hear about his mom all this was unknown, inspiring and open my being and my mind in so many ways…
I wanted to learn to expand and learn about different views of thinking, living, creating...
I experienced that even small changes, for example helping others, or creating an artwork were not meaningless... It had a unique resonance carrying and primed by my own existence as a witness of what it was happening in my own life, or country, and how I started to build a genuine view of what I wanted to create...
When did you first fall in love with art and realize you wanted to be an artist? For you, what is the importance of the arts? I fell in love with art after living different experiences.... for example, when I saw a picture of The Kiss of Judas by Giotto. It was not about religious specifically, for me, it was in my face good versus evil...and it confront me at the same time thinking in my own life, my relations with friends, neighbors, classmates… how I may react if something like this happens today in my present time...
The importance of art for me is because sets millions of seeds.... opening new paths, presenting different types of beauty... its ambiguity of emotions, make us question everything… show contradictions, the absurdity, and inquiring the self that wants to live in a significant mode...
How do you organize your creative process when focusing on a series? A typical day in my studio starts with checking my mediums, and setting up materials, and planning ahead how many straight hours of work I will need if I am including materials like epoxy, wood, wire, etc.… it will affect the work if I stop. When I work on canvas I use mainly oils, incorporating different brushes and palettes. When I work in paper I use, inks, gouache and acrylics on Japanese papers. I don’t have time to make my own paper.
When I have to use molds I work mainly with epoxy, oil and acrylics.... When I work with epoxy or silicone molds, the inside has to be impeccable clean. I wash the molds several times before I start working. The temperature of the room has to be at 78 F degrees minimum and a maximum of 80 F. I set the temperature half an hour before I enter to the room to work on. I truly start thinking about what I would like” to explore” the day before…not really as an idea but like a sentiment. And I never have clear view of what I would create…it is in the making that everything takes place…
What projects are you at work on at the moment? And what themes or ideas are currently driving your work? Language violence and pluralism have been going around my head, I never know how I am going to translate what it is going on inside of me. In this case I thought the fragility and vulnerability of paper were the right material to start to. The projects that I am working on now are mainly on paper. I am using different grams and types of handmade Japanese papers, I paint, or dye, or print on and after I add different mediums creating a thick surface and molding it closer to a 3D piece rather than a flat finished work. I have been inclined looking to explore softness, and friendly spaces, protected from harm… I am setting one piece next to another without the sense of wanting to match it or look pretty, but yes, I intent to find a safe ambient, a plural friendly space.
What do you want your audience to take away from your exploration of color and form? Most of my work differ from traditional art forms, the emphasis is set in the process not really in the end product. Creating itself becomes a form of meditation access a deeply level of meditation, the space and light that inhabits, the interconnectedness with the rhythms of earth and ingrained spirituality of every day existence.... What do I hope people feel when they experience my art....probably that we are meant to evolve, to become the best people that we can. The advancement of the sciences has to be at the same level of the grow of the soul, never abandon it or dimmish its importance.
If you could time travel to any artist’s studio, whose would it be and what would you hope to witness? The artists that I would haved loved or would like to meet… oh I have a huge list, I will make it shorter and in not specific order: Giotto brought the church closer to ordinary people by humanizing biblical events, showing our own humanity and errors. If we take away the religious part, we have the everyday of our own existence. Doris Salcedo, I admire her capacity of bringing attention to the consequences of brutal violence…
Agnes Martin: her simplicity and spiritual search…. Rachel Whiteread, Eva Hesse both used industrial materials transforming it in objects with such beauty and meaning …Carrie Mae Weems, she explores America contemporary life in an exquisite and fascinating form, including everything that concerns her and me as well…Cy Twombly, I adore him…he expressed: My line is childlike but not childish. It is very difficult to fake…” “To get that quality you need to project yourself into the child’s line. It has to be felt. "And just that is precious...
Do you draw inspiration from music, art, or other disciplines? I think every discipline well done draws inspiration if one is open to …poems, music, novels, essays... theater, movies, painting, sculptures……. All are open oceans that I can” swim in “and refresh my soul…family and good friends too.
A great thing about living in my town is…
How do I engage with my local community…I live in a small town, my interaction is mainly with individual artists, students sometimes, not trying to change them but helping expanding their own vision in some way…
What’s the most emotionally intense work you’ve made?
Decades ago, a couple contacted me if I could make a sculpture using the toys and different objects that belong to their son. He was killed in a brutal violent manner. I wasn’t sure if I was the right person to make this work because it was different, integrating others pieces, and I thought it had to be perfect. I don’t make perfect artworks. But they convinced me that they really wanted me to do that. I did it, but it was very tough when I got each toy and favorite thing that he loved since he was little, and how precious it was for them. Each toy and object turned precious for me as well. This kind of thing never ends as a complete or successful piece because it doesn’t fix the fact that their son was gone.
Tell us about important teachers/mentors/collaborators in your life. In Argentina I had a Russian -expressionist mentor during early 80, maestro Stravensky who was truly the complete educator. He wanted to know about us and taught us to see from inside out. In the United States John Blee, an artist and art critic from DC, always shares significative and meaningful thoughts about art or my work and shared his knowledge as a painter and art critic with me. Both were generous and had a huge influence on me, John still has. I also think that every good artist from the past or contemporary if we study them closer can be a mentor in a way, as well…
Sustainability in the art world is an important issue. Your relationship to nature comes through your art. How does being in nature inspire your process? My children saw a beautiful flower growing on the back yard, it was a tulip. It was by itself because the squeals moved the bulb. It supposed to be with a group that we planted months before. When the flower started to open, I saw them from my studio, looking at and talking with each other and decided to don’t cut it and don’t bring it inside. They thought it was so beautiful there on the grass, they didn't want to take it out from that environment. I thought this was the best example of having different types of sensibilities related to nature, we don’t need to destroy or take everything that we like…it has to be a balance. I use epoxy in my art but there is not waste, because it is all recycled, waste is a huge and serious issue…
AI is becoming more entwined with the way we see the world, creativity, art, our ideas of beauty and the way we communicate with each other and our imaginations. As an artist working with handmade materials and storytelling, what are your thoughts on its rise? AI is made using our hands and brain. I use my too my brain and my hand as well but there is a different interaction, there is an ingrained element in each piece through our hands goes our own history, footprint, fingerprint...ongoing process of self -transformation, besides just living and feeling this experience surpasses the material realm.
Exploring ideas, art and the creative process connects me to…
our inner world, nature and rhythms of the earth and our own being, expanding our possibilities, the grow of the soul and contemplation…
