Wendy’s work is defined by the extraordinary interracial marriage she has been partner in for more than thirty-eight years. The making of art, travel and photography are her passions. Celebrating each person’s uniqueness, with race, religion, color, and culture as part of one’s tapestry of life, Wendy explores the human face. She celebrates the miracle of beauty and how it emerges from the cultures of ordinary lives, families, rituals, artifacts and places. She engages the public by giving them a glimpse of the journey within the images and within themselves. “I take the expressive human face and give it a sense of inclusiveness for all peoples, a sense of greatness larger than the moment captured.”
Wendy experiments in a fingerpainterly way using gouache and ink to produce a portrait that she tints with watercolours. Then, Wendy begins anew, creating larger quilted portraits. She expands her media to include textiles, man-made and natural fibres, papers, plastic, sparkles, beads, crystals, acrylics, crayons, metallics and inks on under paintings of fabric. Finally, she machine and hand sews, embossing the subtle truths, thoughts and feelings that Wendy sees laying textured and engrained on the imperfect soul.
Wendy strives to tap into the collective consciousness of humankind, where fibres are the underpainting, machine sewn threads are the line drawings, and embellishments bring the face to life! When the public connects with her portraits everyone has the opportunity for a mind-altering, inspired reflection of their own state of being.
“Your emotions enhance your humanity and add depth to the meaning of life.”
(David D. Burns MD.)
Wendy Rao
