Biography:
A long time Alaskan, Rebecca Starry was a founding member and former president of the Alaska Bead Society. She has studied intensively with such bead masters as Joyce Scott, David Chatt, and NanC Meinhardt. Rebecca has nearly 30 years of experience with beading techniques making jewelry, wearable and sculptural art pieces. When asked why she chose beadwork as her medium, she replied,
“Beads are a complex, tactile medium of artistic atoms which allow me to create structure as well as an embellished finish with a great amount of detail using various off loom techniques. I find the color, composition and engineering elements of making art to be particularly challenging and fascinating. I appreciate the interactive nature of beadwork – the colorful particles warming to my touch as I stitch them together one by one. This warmth provides me with pleasure and positive feedback as the artwork is constructed.”
Rebecca’s fascination with beadwork was first inspired by the beadwork of Virginia Blakelock. Rebecca was determined to create oversized works of art, but found her irregular shaped designs did not work well on the loom. She then discovered she could create the look of loom work without the loom. By combining the Herringbone stitch technique with an additional thread path, Rebecca created the Horizontal Square stich she used to create detailed multi colored elaborate floral wearable art pieces. Rebecca’s beadwork efforts were rewarded by her acceptance into two juried exhibitions in 1996; “Seed Dreams, Beaded Visions” shown at theGoldstein Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, andin “Absolutely Beads” shown at Beads & Beyond, located in Seattle, Washington. This technique was published in Bead & Button magazine in June 2000.
Rebecca beadwork has evolved and she now expresses a distinctive voice with her beadwork by including unusual items into her artwork.
“Turning away from making the obvious statements with the found objects I incorporate into my artwork, I hope to draw the viewer in closer – causing them to take a second look which I hope is rewarded with an artful surprise.”
Her Dangerous Goods series incorporates live ammunition, martial arts throwing stars, throwing knives, chain saw blades, scissors and razor blades.
Mike Dunham (Anchorage Daily News) reported:
“At first glance the necklace seems innocuous enough, a meticulously assembled assortment of beads and ornaments. But then you see that the bullet-shaped cylinders arrayed around it are, well, bullets.
Live bullets, says artist Rebecca Starry, and big ones, 30.06, .300 Winchester. Really Alaskan. Starry is one of six artists given $500 awards in "Earth, Fire and Fibre XXVII," which opens at the Anchorage Museum on Friday. Juror Patricia Watkinson gave the prize to Starry for a collection of four pieces she submitted to the competition.
In addition to "High Caliber Collar," Starry's "Dangerous Goods" series included similarly stunning beaded necklaces incorporating drill bits and chuck keys ("Twisted"), scissors ("Runs with Scissors") and a chain saw blade ("Be Stihl My Heart").”
In 2012, Lark Books published their Showcase 500 Beaded Jewelry book. Three of Rebecca’s beadwork pieces were included in the book – one of them was featured on the back cover. Juror for the book, Ray Hemachandra stated,
“This collection includes work from many of the world’s best-known beading artists-superstars and the master designers and teachers-and it also presents pieces made by talented beaders whose work has not been published previously. More than 360 artists from 30 countries submitted photography of their jewelry for consideration in this book, and I think the enthusiasm, energy, and creative juice of today’s global beading community are captured here. The designs are brilliantly inventive, beautiful, and often surprising.
Margie Deeb published four of Rebecca’s pieces as positive design models in her latest book published in 2014, “The Beader’s Guide to Jewelry Design: A Beautiful Exploration of Unity, Balance, Color and More.” Ms. Deeb said this about Rebecca’s “High Caliber Collar”,
“When you look at a beautifully unified design, you see the overall necklace first. In this case, a radiant starburst of gold and copper captures your attention and draws you in compelling you to look closer and discover bullets.”
In 2015, Rebecca exhibited her Dangerous Goods beadwork in the “BEAD” exhibit at the Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, Virginia which included the works of beadwork masters Joyce Scott and David Chatt and others. Ms. Holly Koons McCullough addressed Rebecca’s work in her Curator’s Statement for the show. Ms. Koons McCullough stated,
“Rebecca Starry of Alaska juxtaposes the lavish and the lethal in her Dangerous Goods series. The seamless blending of seductive beads and gleaming bullets or blades in her jewelry culminates in objects that are simultaneously beautiful and forbidding.”
And “The works by these fifteen artists are a tangible testament to the vitality and relevance of beads as an artistic medium. As with the STITCH exhibition mounted at GRACE in 2014, the works on display harness traditional methods typically associated with domestic pursuits, to create powerful works addressing themes that are anything but mundane.”
Upon reviewing Rebecca’s artwork in the “BEAD” exhibit, Janet Rems (FairfaxTimes.com) said,
“Simultaneously luminous and lethal, the art of Rebecca Starry, who had a career in law enforcement, combines beads and bullets in powerful and striking jewelry pieces.”
Rebecca has been exhibited locally and nationally in numerous venues as well as published in books, periodicals and media. In 2009, Rebecca won the Juror’s Award for her body of work exhibited in the Earth Fire and Fibre XXVII show and; with Rasmuson Foundation grant money, the Anchorage Museum purchased one of her pieces for their permanent collection.
In 2016, Rebecca was chosen as one of the 12 exhibiting artists in the Women’s Caucus for Art exhibit, “Trending: Contemporary Art Now!” juried by Elizabeth Garvey at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. The Torpedo Factory partnered with the Women’s Caucus for Art for their national conference and stated,
“Target Gallery is pleased to partner with the Women’s Caucus for Art to present Trending: Contemporary Art Now! This all-media exhibition shows works by self-identified women artists that are visually compelling, conceptually exciting and driving the direction of contemporary art. The juror for this exhibition was Elizabeth K. Garvey, founder and Director of Garvey Simon Art Access in New York.”
“The title of this exhibition, Trending, immediately brought to mind the #hashtag culture we currently find ourselves. Virtually everything and anything that is “au courant” (“trending” as we call it now) Cn be quickly digested in a millisecond for less than a megabyte of our “there’s an app for that” society. We are bombarded by so much imagery and information that our time is often spent quickly scanning rather than closely looking. Spending quality t-i-m-e experiencing a work of art is an integral part of the appreciation of it, both in the moment and during the inner dialogue that lingers on after a work is truly absorbed. I saw this exhibition as a small opportunity to reaffirm the importance of digging deeper and looking longer.” “I selected artists whose work seemed of our time, well-crafted and of a variety of media. Works range from installation, video, vinyl adhesive, oil on panel, collage, 3-D photography, and found objects (even live ammo!). It was my pleasure to discover this rich group of diverse artists through this process. I hope that together they will provide an interesting cross section of stimulating and inspiring work by “Trending” women artists.”
Rebecca’s latest piece, “Of Course I Can” was chosen in the spring of 2016 for the “Maker Moxie – The Impact of Craft School Experience” exhibit in the Sally D. Francisco Exhibition Gallery at the Peters Valley School of Craft in Layton, New Jersey. This sculptural piece resembles a fish dinner on a plate and is comprised of a taxidermy form completely covered and densely textured with different sized beads – but uses food rationing tokens as the scales. Food Rationing Stamps also appear in the garnish. The title of the piece, Of Course I Can was taken from the marketing posters encouraging patriotic citizens to ration food and supplies. The use of found objects again making a subtle statement within the work.
Rebecca’s art "High Caliber Collar" was selected again for the juried exhibition – “The Gun Show” in Little Rock, Arkansas.
ABOUT DRAWL SOUTHERN CONTEMPORARY is a gallery focused on promoting and preserving Southern arts and culture. It represents an array of artists ranging from emerging talents to established Southern masters.
THE THEME: A ubiquitous element of life in the South, guns inspire a variety of powerful associations—they are complex, iconic symbols of freedom of outdoor leisure, artistry, mechanical precision, defense, survival, violence, and war. The Gun Show is a multi-discipline exhibition that explores the role of the firearm in Southern Culture by inviting artists, writers, and scholars to consider the historical and cultural role of guns and their place in our society by asking:
“WHAT DOES THE VISUAL PRESENCE OF GUNS SUGGEST TO YOU?”
“Art is a great vehicle to engage people of all backgrounds in this debate. The hope is that people who don't normally look at art will give it a chance because of the subject matter, and those who don't normally care for the subject matter will engage because of the art. As much as it seems to be about issues surrounding 2nd Amendment, The Gun Show is in fact about exercising the 1st Amendment.”
- Guy W. Bell, Gallery Director & Artist
THE JUROR The show was be judged by Chad Alligood, curator at the world class Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. He’s played a key role in the development of the museum’s exhibitions, most notably, State of the Art: Discovering Art Now. The success of State of the Art led to it become a traveling national exhibition.
On The 20th Anniversary of the Alaska Bead Society, Ms. Starry was selected as the featured artist for the Bead Arts Gala event at the Anchorage Museum. Ms. Starry’s photo of “Of Course I Can” was used as the advertisement for the show.