Artist Rooted in the 1970s Finds A Home at Rhinebeck Bank
By Julia Halsey
If you’re looking to peruse modern art, you may not need to venture farther than your local bank.
That’s because Rhinebeck Bank does far more than manage checking accounts. Turns out, the bank’s Rhinebeck and Beacon branches have an entire gallery room dedicated to displaying the artwork of Hudson Valley artists.
Artists can become a part of the bank’s gallery through its “Artwork Program,” and Saugerties artist Prudence Haze is one of the many artists who have taken advantage of the opportunity.
“It’s a great tool for people looking to promote themselves in the art world,” she said.
Haze is the featured artist in the Beacon branch this month, and debuted her collection of works titled “Love,” on February 14. The show runs through April 30.
“It’s been a lifelong thing,” the 24-year-old artist explained. “I’ve been painting ever since I was able to hold a paint brush.”
After a brief hiatus throughout high school, she picked up a paintbrush again when she was 20, this time with a serious career in mind. Though she wanted to pursue her art full time, Haze still strayed away from traditional schooling.
“I feel like my style is so self-developed that I don’t really want to go to school and have them try to shape that in a different way,” she said. “As an artist, your style is always changing, and the environment around you influences that. I feel as though if I were to go to school, I would be pushed toward the traditional style of painting.”
Haze’s paintings are anything but traditional. Rooted in 1970s aesthetic, she considers herself a psychedelic artist.
“I’ve always been drawn to 1960s and 1970s music, style and fashion,” she explained. “My art is more free flowing than structured.”
Though she has always tapped into these decades as inspiration for her work, Haze believes that to be a true artist is to be ever-changing, and evidence of her growth can be seen in her new series of paintings at Rhinebeck Bank.
“This series showcases my new style of work, which is more so based on retro 1960s style,” she said. “The audience that I’m trying to pull in could be a variety of different people. It could attract young people in their 20s up to people who experienced the 60s and that music and that era.”
Haze explained that it has always been a goal of hers to bring the 60s and 70s back into style.
“I’m trying spark the interest of that time period to bring back that old art form into a modern society where it has kind of been forgotten, which is really sad in my opinion,” she said.
Haze hopes that her installation at Rhinebeck Bank will help spark some nostalgia in bank goers and art connoisseurs alike.
“We can’t forget where we came from,” she said. “Art is always changing.”
