After nearly exclusively painting portraits for many years, it was not until 2013 that Rachel Talentino included the beauty industry as a subject in her work. She fully realized her fascination with cosmetics and skincare in 2010 when she began following select Beauty YouTubers as a form of relaxation. For many years, she collected and studied empty product bottles and tubes with the intention of creating work focused on an obsession with perfection and youth. After moving to Hawaiʻi in 2017, the endemic and non-native flora of the state became a new source of inspiration. To date, she works to cohesively combine these elements that make up her daily life to create work she hopes can resonate with a diverse audience.
Rachel Talentino was born in Tacoma, Washington, but lived there only a short time. Her family soon followed her mother’s military career across the United States to Georgia, then Hawaiʻi, then back to Georgia. She attended the Savannah College of Art and Design and graduated with a degree in painting in 2005. After living and working in New York City for twelve years, she and her own small family relocated to Hawaiʻi in August 2017. She now lives in Honolulu with her husband and their cat, Bergamot.
