Today we’d like to introduce you to Becca Rodriguez.
Hi Becca, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am a ceramic sculptor, biomaterial artist, illustrator, and experimental musician who grew up living between Florida and Georgia. My practice is informed by these southeastern ocean, wetland, and forest ecosystems and feelings of leaving and returning to them across time and season. I work primarily in craft and process-oriented art that make lifecycles and experienced environments visible.
While studying ceramics and printmaking at the University of North Florida I became more engaged with material research, using waste and remnants as vehicles for play within the making-process. Upon graduating in 2017, I moved to Atlanta full time after connecting with printmaking artists in the area.
For the past eight years, I’ve been sharing and collaborating in DIY art spaces, homes, and forests in Atlanta while studying biology and immersing myself in ecological storytelling. In my material practice, repeated motifs of eggs, vessels, altars and layered atmospheres live together to build speculative ecologies, exploratory public installations, and ancestral communing.
I’ve also been a part of Side Clay Studio, a shared ceramics studio in Cabbagetown, where I have been able to host small scale workshops in clay, printmaking, papermaking, and natural dyeing. I believe play, wonder, and deep noticing are critical components to build next systems.
In 2020, I spent a lot of time experimenting with electronic music and taking field recordings around Atlanta. I have been recording and performing music since then. I went on my first tour in 2023 with my partner, Cal Fish (ny-based), and since then have been traveling between Atlanta and New York collaborating together on music and archival sound projects.
In my music practice, my instinct is to build both delicate and noisey textures through electronic hardware, flute, handmade ceramics/instruments, feedback play, and southeastern field recordings. I have released music under the moniker “Leather Projection” and will release music as “armari e” going forward.
I continue to work with and research biomaterials, transforming organic matter to a more stable structure in collaboration with organisms and chemical change. Most recently, I have been processing natural dyes made from foraged plants (like walnut, acorn, goldenrod). I am able to archive these natural dyes by shifting them from liquid pigment to powder form using aluminum sulfate and sodium carbonate. I don’t feel completely in control of outcomes, and am not searching for that. I am more interested in better understanding these material lifeways by letting them intervene.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I have dealt with a lot of rejection, financial hardships, and bouts with chronic illness over the years that has made living as an artist and musician challenging, especially throughout Covid. At the same time, I started becoming more tender with my practice and being more mindful about what types of materials I was working with when I was dealing with illness heavily, something I still carry with me in my biomaterial practice today.
As a community, Atlanta has also been fighting against Cop City and the destruction of the Weelaunee forest. Simultaneously many of Atlanta’s beloved DIY venues and community spaces continue to close or be reimagined as buildings get bought out by large developers, rent rises, or tragic fires break out.
These personal and interconnected challenges are not unique to me, but are shared by many artists, musicians, and community at large. Though difficult and filled with lots of grief, it has also been amazing to see space that is created quite literally overnight. A dear friend, Annalise Nelson, has been offering her backyard (“Baby’s Place”) as an art and performance space that has been interpreted by countless artists over the past year. I feel grateful to have lived in a community that honors grief so readily and to be surrounded by determined and free individuals.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I touched on this a bit in the first question, but I specialize in clay sculpture, biomaterial, music, and drawing. More commercially, I am known for being an illustrator and have worked with orgs like Georgia Organics to visually tell stories.
I am most proud of being a part of a community that shares and uplifts each others’ ideas.
What’s next?
I am more so based in Brooklyn as of 6 months ago, so that is a big change! I am currently a part of a community biology lab called Genspace in Brooklyn where I am getting hands-on life sciences training through wet lab experiments. I hope to continue my own experiments here in collaboration with the community.
I am working on recording my next album and hope to be finished early in the new year. You can find a recent song on my soundcloud that includes field recordings taken at Arabia Mountain, a place very dear to me that I spent a lot of time at with my family growing up.
I am also hopeful to find ceramic studio space again. I really miss Side Clay Studio!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://beccarodriguez.github.io/bug-world/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armarierodriguez/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmySdWKEYNg
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/armarierodriguez/lives-at-arabia-mtn
- Other: https://leatherprojection.bandcamp.com/
Image Credits
Phil Lehans
Rian Archer
Nat Escobar
