Rani Young
Rani Young (pronounced RAH-nee) is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist—painter, illustrator, sculptor, installation artist, filmmaker, singer, actor, lyricist, and writer—who brings her professional skills as a graphic designer, motion graphics artist, and video editor into her art practice.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Born as a twin on Halloween, I have always been drawn to the idea of becoming a character as well as finding and expressing my own unique identity. I am a multidisciplinary artist and I work within whatever medium suits my needs in the moment, whether drawing, painting, music, writing, sculpture, or space design. I live and work in my art studio surrounded by the characters and scenes that originate in my mind and spill out onto my canvases, as if I am living within a book or a film, and I often utilize self-portraiture as a way of changing costume and working out identity. I grew up painting, drawing, singing to myself, and reading Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie. I loved to feel like I was unraveling some mystery, and I still feel like I am doing just that when I'm figuring out how to depict something on canvas or create an effect I want using a technology tool. I work professionally as a graphic designer and a motion graphics/video artist, and my graphic sensibilities and interest in motion factor into my paintings. And, to an equal degree, my paintings have always felt like film stills. I've recently gotten into filmmaking and acting, and now worlds are truly colliding.
Rani Young (pronounced RAH-nee) is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist—painter, illustrator, sculptor, installation artist, filmmaker, singer, actor, lyricist, and writer—who brings her professional skills as a graphic designer, motion graphics artist, and video editor into her art practice.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Born as a twin on Halloween, I have always been drawn to the idea of becoming a character as well as finding and expressing my own unique identity. I am a multidisciplinary artist and I work within whatever medium suits my needs in the moment, whether drawing, painting, music, writing, sculpture, or space design. I live and work in my art studio surrounded by the characters and scenes that originate in my mind and spill out onto my canvases, as if I am living within a book or a film, and I often utilize self-portraiture as a way of changing costume and working out identity. I grew up painting, drawing, singing to myself, and reading Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie. I loved to feel like I was unraveling some mystery, and I still feel like I am doing just that when I'm figuring out how to depict something on canvas or create an effect I want using a technology tool. I work professionally as a graphic designer and a motion graphics/video artist, and my graphic sensibilities and interest in motion factor into my paintings. And, to an equal degree, my paintings have always felt like film stills. I've recently gotten into filmmaking and acting, and now worlds are truly colliding.
$235.00
Graphite on paper.
5x6"
Illustration of man looking down at woman with her eyes closed. Victorian/art nouveau/gothic.
$465.00
Vine charcoal and charcoal pencil on paper.
10.50x8.50"
Framed.
Tall residential buildings along Lakeshore Drive in Chicago as seen from Lincoln Park high-rise.
$250.00
Ink, conté and colored pencil on fabric.
6x7"
An avid lover of history and fashion, I was inspired by the "Fashion and The Field Museum Collection: Maria Pinto" show at the Field Museum in Chicago in 2012. There was a stunning emerald dress designed by Pinto that really captivated me, and I took many photos of it. I decided to draw it onto fabric--what more suitable material is there for a drawing of a dress? I used a ballpoint pen in a cross-hatching technique that paired well with the bias weave of the poly knit and created heightening with the addition of white conté pencil, plus a blush of my own color interpretation with a red colored pencil application.
$390.00
Oil on canvas.
8x10"
This painting was inspired by a photograph I saw of a model walking the runway in this gorgeous Valentino dress.
$285.00
Acrylic on canvas.
5.50x7.50"
This small object--a tiny painting in a gilded frame with velvet matting--seems like the type of treasure that might be found in a cabinet of curiosities. Small objects hold a special significance to me, and feel uniquely "curious."
$430.00
Oil and graphite on canvas paper.
10.50x12"
This piece is inspired by a photograph at a friend's house. I don't recall if the people depicted had a sort of haunted quality to them in the original photograph, but in my final rendering of them, they do. I am always struck by the curious arrangement of these people who seem to have no warmth or sense of relationship whatsoever.
$1,140.00
Oil on canvas.
16x20"
The second in the Girl Detective Paintings series. The main character (also a self-portrait) is beginning her journey of seeing in three dimensions. She is recalling going through vision therapy to learn to see in a new way, and preparing to embark on that journey again.