Q&A with Alla Rubitel, Artist and Psychiatrist
In September, I hosted June Corpuz and Alla Rubitel at the Tavistock Centre for a collaborative show. Their exhibition Structures by Man and Nature featured over 30 artworks in a variety of mediums, including cyanotype, aquatint and Japanese woodblock print.
Alla Rubitel is a London-based artist as well as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst at the Portman Clinic. Last year, she marked the Portman’s 90th anniversary with a solo exhibition City Break. Alla has five pieces in the Trust’s permanent art collection.
I asked Alla a few questions about her art practice.
How did you start your art journey?
I have always been interested in close observation and registration of what I find engaging in the world around me. Initially, it was mark making which I found fascinating, as well as exploring the space between what I saw and what I made of what I saw.
My art practice has been developing alongside my psychoanalytic practice. Empathic observation is the foundation that informs the marks and connections being made as well as meanings discovered.
What inspires you in your art journey?
I am intrigued by creative process in itself. Its flow is infinitely fascinating, comprising inevitable disruptions, disconnections, losses and rediscoveries of what has been apparently lost.
I am interested in the ways of observing, seeing, mark making. I often feel that there are thousands of eyes involved in it.
Tell me something about one of your paintings.
There’s one called Solstice Tree. It was in that magical place in Hampstead Heath, early in the morning before the sunrise. It was the shortest day of the year. The light is emanating somewhere, it’s just about to break through. There is an interaction between darkness and light. Sometimes one has to go in the dark to bring the light to the surface.
Are there new exhibitions or art projects in the pipeline for you?
I have a couple of projects in mind which are still germinating. Hopefully, they will be ready to face the world next September in an exhibition, which I will invite you to.
