Rachel Paxton received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the School of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Her neon sign paintings are currently represented by Mixx Atelier in Telluride, Colorado.

Her stylized interpretations of mid-century neon signs are hyper-idealized with atomic clichés resulting in new docu-fiction icons of advertisement. They are revered as American archetypes, while contradictorily, they are based on memories that are often inaccurate and culturally biased. The neon signs inhabit spatially ambiguous environments which are combinations of generic landscapes and flat abstract patterns. A long shadow of late afternoon light implies a familiar location, while in reality, the specific neon signs reside in a non-specific context. The paintings explore the intersection between selectivity and approximation, deep and flat space, and pattern and texture. They reveal unresolved tensions between abstraction, decoration and landscape, while referring to Pop Art, mid-century Western kitsch and our fading collective memories.