“Lot Fees” by Rhyn Cavallaro. “I do love the curve of the female form,” Cavallaro said. “It’s reflected in my art.” Courtesy of Rhyn Cavallaro.St. Petersburg native Rhyn Cavallaro is painting her hometown colorful – and mostly nude.
“I am a gay female artist; I identify as lesbian and surround myself with other strong, powerful women,” Cavallaro said. “I want to represent that power and nudity tends to make that femininity more digestible.”
Her current favorite child is the painting “Lot Fees,” an acrylic-on-canvas piece that features a Florida woman sporting oversized sunglasses, a tattooed breast and a ‘possum scarf outside a mobile home.
“It’s a whole story in one scene,” Cavallaro said. “I used to dismember my characters, but as I’m growing as an artist, I want to put the scene together.”
Cavallaro studied studio art at Butte College in California to sharpen her form before returning home. In the last five years, her use of bold colors and content has surpassed the norm.
“I like to change the roles of color,” Cavallaro said. “I can be really out there.”
Deer skull, goat mandibles and a rabbit pelvis suspended in an antique frame make up “Bound.” Courtesy of Rhyn Cavallaro.When she’s not painting the female form, she’s returning to a motif of bones.
“I include a lot of bones in my artwork, and I think that freaks people out,” Cavallaro said. “There’s beauty in everything we have, and we all die. We will all become bones one day.”
She also identifies as a professional doodler, but as Cavallaro’s name grows throughout the St. Petersburg art scene, her work is becoming more prominent around town.
Cavallaro’s next solo show, “Wild Women,” premiers at St. Petersburg’s Wayward Goose this October.
“I’ve had solo shows before, but they were clumsy,” she said. “This one is going to be amazing. I make my art for other people to see, so I can’t wait.”
Keep up with the artist at instagram.com/color_rhyn.
“Colorflies.” Courtesy of Rhyn Cavallaro.
Want to talk about this post? Click here and discuss on Facebook!
