Rachel Cordaro paints on her porch, surrounded in sunlight by rocks, flowers and singing birds. The 27-year-old can’t always hear them over the music of Nina Simone or Colbie Caillat playing through her headphones, but she said that doesn’t matter when she’s in the zone.
Cordaro paints quickly, finishing whimsical works in single-sitting sessions. She said her signature style, messy bunches of dreamlike flowers rendered in thick acrylics, lends itself to and grew out of her speedy flow.
“I just love it to look messy, like the flowers are shoved in there,” Cordaro said over coffee in her apartment near the Greece/Gates/Spencerport town line. There, she and her husband, the painter Cordell Cordaro, live with their small dog, Mowgli.
Cordaro, who grew up in Irondequoit near the Seneca Park Zoo before moving to Greece in grade school, recently left her day job at Savastano’s Bakery to become a full-time artist. Her work will be featured on Sept. 16 from 10-4 p.m. on Artist Row at the Rochester Public Market and at the Purple Painted Lady Barn Sale and Junk Jubilee in Palmyra on Sept. 22.
“I love painting,” Cordaro said. “If I don’t have canvas I feel like I don’t have food.”
Did you ever expect you’d be a full-time artist?
My husband gave me the confidence, because he's been a full time artist since I started dating him. He was behind me 100 percent to go in this direction and we both hold each other up in that. I’m in a really great place in my life. I can do what I love.
When did you first become interested in art?
I'd say about ’08 is when I really started to develop my love for painting. When I was real young I was obsessed with coloring, staying in the lines. I liked to draw and write short stories and illustrate them when I was in fifth grade. It just kind of flowed into painting. My mom had a pool house and I painted sunflowers on the back of it and all my neighbors used to say, “Oh you're the house with the sunflowers on the building!”
Why flowers?
Flowers are my first love. I love poppies. I love sunflowers. I love those natural colors, the yellow ochres and the red popping out.
Usually I move fast with the brush, and the flowers go hand in hand with that. I am a painter who doesn't like to take time. When I sit down to do a painting, it's finished. I don't go back to it.
Rachel Cordaro paints on her porch, surrounded in sunlight by rocks, flowers and singing birds. The 27-year-old can’t always hear them over the music of Nina Simone or Colbie Caillat playing through her headphones, but she said that doesn’t matter when she’s in the zone.
Cordaro paints quickly, finishing whimsical works in single-sitting sessions. She said her signature style, messy bunches of dreamlike flowers rendered in thick acrylics, lends itself to and grew out of her speedy flow.
“I just love it to look messy, like the flowers are shoved in there,” Cordaro said over coffee in her apartment near the Greece/Gates/Spencerport town line. There, she and her husband, the painter Cordell Cordaro, live with their small dog, Mowgli.
Cordaro, who grew up in Irondequoit near the Seneca Park Zoo before moving to Greece in grade school, recently left her day job at Savastano’s Bakery to become a full-time artist. Her work will be featured on Sept. 16 from 10-4 p.m. on Artist Row at the Rochester Public Market and at the Purple Painted Lady Barn Sale and Junk Jubilee in Palmyra on Sept. 22.
“I love painting,” Cordaro said. “If I don’t have canvas I feel like I don’t have food.”
Did you ever expect you’d be a full-time artist?
My husband gave me the confidence, because he's been a full time artist since I started dating him. He was behind me 100 percent to go in this direction and we both hold each other up in that. I’m in a really great place in my life. I can do what I love.
When did you first become interested in art?
I'd say about ’08 is when I really started to develop my love for painting. When I was real young I was obsessed with coloring, staying in the lines. I liked to draw and write short stories and illustrate them when I was in fifth grade. It just kind of flowed into painting. My mom had a pool house and I painted sunflowers on the back of it and all my neighbors used to say, “Oh you're the house with the sunflowers on the building!”
Why flowers?
Flowers are my first love. I love poppies. I love sunflowers. I love those natural colors, the yellow ochres and the red popping out.
Usually I move fast with the brush, and the flowers go hand in hand with that. I am a painter who doesn't like to take time. When I sit down to do a painting, it's finished. I don't go back to it.
Why do you paint so fast?
I'm like that in everything I do. I like those big motions with my brush, to really jump into it and move quickly and fluidly. I feel like when it's in the moment, when I'm listening to my music, if I take too long I can mess it up.
What is it about the music that inspires you?
It is definitely the energy. The music is a must when I’m painting. Sometimes if I feel like taking my time I listen to native, meditational music and things just come out differently. If I feel like being crazy I'll listen to other stuff. I painted Nina Simone and I had paint all over my arms when I was done.
What do you get out of painting?
It's just such a brave way to go in life, and it's so fulfilling when you put your brush in the water and you rip out your earphones and you’re done. You love it, and you see other people love it. It's a blank canvas and you put your heart into it and there it is.
How do you feel during your own shows?
I don't generally get nervous because I can talk the ears off corn. It just comes natural to me, being cheerful. I'm doing what I love, so I don't have to pull any fakeness out. I do feel drained when I'm done, because you're so aware of everything, but it's a good tired and I'm ready to do the next show.
What’s next?
I would love to travel. One of my dreams is to go to the garden of Monet in Paris. You can actually paint in there, so that's on my bucket list.
Why live in Rochester?
I think Rochester is really good to artists. Seeing what they've done for me and my husband... He has a following and I'm free to pursue it here and I don't feel like I'm being snuffed out or anything. We don't plan on staying here forever, but I like to live here. It’s home.
