Rebecca Kinkead

Rebecca Kinkead is a Vermont-based artist who lives and works in Cornwall. She holds degrees in Political Science and French from the University of Vermont, and a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from Minnesota State University. Her work began with clay and transitioned to paint in 1998. Kinkead has been awarded residencies at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, County Mayo, Ireland; Baer Art Center, Hofsos, Iceland; Jentel Foundation, Banner, Wyoming; and most recently, the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. Her work has been exhibited and collected nationally and internationally for over two decades.

Kinkead's search for authenticity manifests with an immediacy of process. The form of the sitter arrives with a sense of physical presence and vulnerability that the artist holds sacred in her work. The quote by Nikola Tesla is central to her painting process:“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

Kinkead began The Neighbor Project in August of 2019 and has painted over 550 individuals to date. The project began on her porch in Vermont as an invitation to her neighbors and has since expanded to include chapters at a special needs preschool in MA, the Daystation in Burlington, and the Downtown Middlebury Portrait that will be exhibited at the Sheldon Museum in the spring.  On March 23rd, as social distancing became the norm across the globe, Rebecca began the FaceTime chapter of A Neighbor Project, inviting anyone around the world to sit for a thirty-minute portrait session over Face Time. She projected a map of the world on her studio wall, traced it, and began painting volunteers over FaceTime on 7” x 5” panels. The portraits are attached to the map wall according to their location. 

"These paintings are an exploration of energy, transience and time; The residue of a fleeting moment, the seen, and unseen vibrations of a living being. Paintings evolve from direct and remembered observations of the natural world. The figure (human and animal) has provided a generous vehicle for color, form and surface to evolve. Paint and wax are layered, dripped and scraped to create a sense that the subject is still emerging…still ‘becoming’."

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” Nikola Tesla