Victoria Rabinowe

I create art because it is how I listen—how I remain in conversation with the world beneath the visible one, where memory, dream, instinct, and ancestral knowing reside. My work arises from a desire to reconnect with something essential and primordial, something that existed before language and still pulses beneath contemporary life. I am not interested in decoration; I am interested in presence. I want the work to feel as though it has always been here. Living in the high desert has profoundly shaped my imagery and philosophy. This landscape teaches restraint, endurance, and reverence. From it I developed ZeroScaping: an environmentally symbiotic way of creating that enriches the land without demanding water. My sculptures are meant to coexist with the landscape, emerging from it rather than interrupting it. The Spirit Poles, made from painted and varnished aspen, rise like sentinels or archetypal beings—totemic presences that hold memory, mark place, and invite contemplation. They are not literal figures, but carriers of spirit, meant to feel both ancient and contemporary. Dreams are a central source of inspiration. A decade ago, a numinous dream of a garden filled with tall, scintillating timbers gave clear direction to this work. My imagery draws from Native American, Aboriginal Australian, West African, and outsider traditions—not through imitation, but resonance. I believe these motifs arise from the collective unconscious, where symbols precede words.

My work grows from curiosity, intuition, and deep engagement with dream, symbol, and the unseen forces that shape our inner lives. Born in 1949, I came of age artistically in the 1970s, when boundaries were meant to be challenged. From the beginning, image-making became my way of understanding both the outer world and the inner landscapes that shape who we are. My education combines formal study and imaginal practice. I studied at Emerson College, Harvard University, and the Boston Museum School, and later trained in Advanced DreamTending at Pacifica Graduate Institute. For nearly three decades, I have been executive director and dreamer-in-residence at the DreamingArts Studio in Santa Fe, where I facilitate dream circles and lead workshops in DreamWriting and creative exploration. Teaching is an extension of my studio practice—my gift is helping others reawaken parts of themselves they may have ignored or slept through. I have served as faculty for Jung Platform and Yerusha Academy and taught internationally throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan. After decades of refining my visual language, I chose to “un-learn,” returning to a more primal way of seeing. Influenced by Native American, Aboriginal Australian, West African, and outsider traditions, my motifs arise from the collective unconscious, where symbols precede words.

2-D, 3-D, Assemblage, Book Arts, Collage/Mixed Media, Drawing, Installation, Multi-Media, Sculpture, Writing