Bio

Dr. Laura Rifkin is a 64-year-old mixed-media artist living in Emeryville with her cat Graycie. Art has been a godsend for her in this strange and unpredictable time.

Artist Statement

I play with media combinations: collage, stitching, dyeing, paper, paint, rusting, encaustic, metal, detritus, sculpture, and whatever captures my imagination. I love combining these different media with telling stories, sometimes about my life and sometimes about others. I follow the direction the media takes me. Paint reveals itself in layers. Collage, stitching, rusting, and dyeing are processes that open the imagination. The more I work with disparate objects, the more stories come through me. The world asks to be heard, and the artist becomes an alchemist; she listens and bears witness, sometimes transforming pain into beauty.