Inspired by mid-century design and classic Americana, Rachel Paxton paints images of hyper-idealized vintage neon signs. The signs are explicitly designed as part documentary, part fiction, based on the acknowledgment that historical truth is unknowable, and memory is incomplete and riddled with our curated imagined ideals.  Paradoxically, her depictions of these revered American archetypes are largely unreliable, fabricated imaginations, but that’s exactly the point.

 

The iconic mid-century neon signs, which appeared in the American landscape for some time, are now mostly forgotten or abandoned. In many cases, dilapidated parts, old photos, and vague memories are all that remain. Paxton adds atomic clichés and stylized interpretations to these, creating her new docu-fiction signs. The paintings are constructed with imagined settings, vintage patterns, and lush, saturated colors. The long shadow of afternoon light implies a familiar location, but as in our imprecise memories, the specific neon signs reside in non-specific contexts.

 

In her paintings, Paxton explores the intersection between documentary and fiction, selectivity and approximation, and deep and flat space. Transparency and opacity reverse unexpectedly, as do textured and smooth surfaces. Her work reveals the unresolved tensions between abstraction, decoration, and landscape while referring to Pop Art, mid-century Western Kitsch, and our fading collective memories.