Meet Eleanor Rahim

We recently connected with Eleanor Rahim and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Eleanor with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

My work ethic in part was instilled in me by my parents. My mom was a night nurse, ultimately caring for many cancer patients in North London and my dad a laboratory technician specializing in pathology and histology at the Royal Free Hospital in London. They maintained steady jobs their whole lives. It was not an easy path, both experienced challenges, my dad with racism in London especially during the 1950s, 60s and 70s having grown up in Guyana of Indian descent. His dark skin and broken English marked him as different in our mostly white neighborhood.

My mom was an Irish immigrant from a country town and I can’t imagine how she felt arriving alone in London and embarking on her nurse training. My parents met at a hospital dance in North London. With two small children, little money and so young, I often wonder how they managed. Early mornings, ‘military’ routine, saving money regularly and dad constantly updating his skills via the Open University. He would stay up late at night studying to keep up with medical research and developments.

I laugh to myself sometimes and think ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, I am my parents after all!’ I rise early even in snowy mid-winter. I arrive at the gym 5-5.30am. I walk in the park afterwards. The ideas flow in that time. I work out problems and plan my day and tasks ahead. I have my mom’s resilience and good humor to face and overcome challenges and her ability to make and retain life-long friendships. My dearest friends, my ‘chosen family’ are precious to me. I have my dad’s patience and tenacity to find solutions. My mom often commented, ‘You are your father’s daughter’. I believe I also have his curiosity and wonder for learning and my mom’s adventurous spirit. After moving to New York, I attended many classes at the Art Students League of New York, School of Visual Arts, Fashion Institute of Technology, Grand Central Atelier and Chelsea Classical Studio.

My life is different from my parents in that I have a varied, creative life rather than a structured medical career path but I still carry with me their work ethic and moral values. They gave me a wonderful, secure foundation on which to start my journey. They also encouraged me to travel believing it to be ‘the best education’. They were right!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I hail from a design background. Having completed a Foundation Course in Art and Design and a degree in Graphic Design in the United Kingdom, I became an independent decorative designer and licensor to the home décor, giftware, tabletop and paper product industries. I exhibited at trade shows, acquired and maintained a number of US based clients and had numerous products featuring my designs in mass market stores such as Target and Walmart as well as smaller chain stores throughout the United States.

Business brought me to New York where, in addition to my work, I ventured into the Art Students League of New York and an exciting passion began. I was awarded the prestigious Red Dot Commendation in my first group show. I began to appreciate how my design skills influenced and helped develop my paintings through color, value, composition, balance, shape and form. My artistic skills have also benefitted my design. I believe that different disciplines influence the other in positive ways. The way I observe shape and really see comes from design and has given me confidence with my compositions in art. A friend once said to me, ‘We are all multi-dimensional.’ We have different talents, various ways to express ourselves and needs to fulfill. Speaking of friends, I have met so many incredibly talented people in New York. I have learned so much from them and, hopefully, passed on some of my knowledge too. Discussing and sharing ideas with fellow creatives has been very important to me.

Through art and design, I was drawn to home interiors. I love to be surrounded by beautiful and tasteful creations whether art and wallpaper on the walls, rugs on the floor or accessories in between. I worked as Senior Designer for a high-end rug company and had the privilege to work with interior designers and architects at Gensler, Vinoly Architects, Studios Architecture, A+I Architecture and Rottet Studio to name a few. I enjoyed problem solving and assisting them to make their visions reality. Professional experience with design has helped me navigate the process of commissioned paintings for private and corporate spaces through working with art consultants and galleries. I have many collectors in the United States and Europe.

Having experimented in portrait drawing and painting, abstract painting and learning to work with materials including, canvas, panel, aluminum, watercolor, charcoal, inks, gouache, clay, casein, acrylic and oil paint, my experience has brought me back to the ocean. The subject of my very first paintings. I have come full circle. It feels so right and I am excited as I further focus and hone my skills on light, energy and emotion expressed through the action of water.

Artist Statement:
The Atlantic Ocean and its ever-changing state, serves as a visual metaphor for human emotions. It is my constant source of wonder and inspiration whichever perspective I view it from. As a British expat living in New York, my view is often from the East Coast of the United States, Cornwall, UK and Barbados, West Indies. My new works explore the intersection of abstraction and representation, together with classical painting techniques and contemporary experimentation.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1) Travel as encouraged by my parents. I traveled around Europe for three months in a VW Camper Van with a boyfriend. We attached our bikes on the back of the van and set out on a grand adventure. We met so many lovely people, immersed ourselves in local history and culture, sketched and painted and generally had a great time driving and cycling our way through different countries. A few years later I set out with a girlfriend on a year’s backpacking trip starting in India, heading eastward and ending in New York. I gained much experience designing many products in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia for various companies. They became my first clients when I returned to London. I made life-long and important friendships too. And hey, here I am in New York City. There was just something about the energy and New Yorkers themselves that touched my soul on my first visit.

2) My design work and the various practical, social and digital skills that have developed over the years along with drawing from life and all the art classes I have attended in New York City.

3) The ability to make and keep friends no matter where in the world they are living. To learn from them whether they are creative or not, to be there for them and grow closer through the ups and downs of life. Laughing together and laughing at oneself is so important as we tackle the challenges of life in the 21st Century. As my mom would say, ‘Life is not for the faint of heart!’ It helps to have amazing friendships.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Being passionate about both art and design, I would like to connect and partner with art lovers, art collectors, galleries, curators, art consultants, interior design showrooms, interior designers and architects to find residential and corporate spaces for my paintings and drawings. I would also like to connect with producers of wallpaper, rugs and decorative home accessories where I can be part of a creative team to produce beautiful products for interiors.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Orestes Gonzalez

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