Contributed by Sharon Butler / This month, the Two Coats of Paint Residency Program welcomes Cozette Russell from Lee, New Hampshire. Russell, who is the Graduate Coordinator in Film and Visual Studies and Critical Media Practice at Harvard University, works out of a barn studio near the land where she grew up, and the proximity to her roots matters. She borrows the Welsh phrase y filltir sgwâr – the square mile – to encapsulate how the place where we’re born shapes who we become. Much of her work is an ongoing conversation about that particular patch of ground.
Russell creates expansively imaginative fractured portraits for which a single picture is just the beginning. She cuts, layers, prints, projects, paints, and re-photographs her images until the original shot turns into collage. The technical processes she employs include silkscreen and Risograph, inkjet, and gelatin-silver printing. Bricks bound with twine show up as images, pedestals, and sculptural elements. In line with feminist traditions, Russell also multiplies images to reflect the complexity of the self. She says using black and white seems like a natural choice because she is “interested in the mid-tones, all that beautiful ‘in between’ of the grays.”
Her collages are informed by ecology, disability and access, her experience of autoimmune disease, and raising a son who is neurologically blind, all circling the idea of a body that fails to recognize itself. The lineage of Russell’s work loosely includes twentieth-century feminist artists Hannah Hoch, Claude Cahun (born Lucy Renée Mathilde Schwob), and Grete Stern. They each used cutting, layering, and staging to question who the photographed woman is and who gets to construct her. “Artmaking for me is a space to work through difficult questions,” Russell said in a recent interview at Lenscratch . “The challenge and rewards are in the process. My process begins with autobiographical material, but I use this material to engage with larger dialogues.”
Cozette Russell, Two Coats of Paint Artist Residency, November 29 – December 4, 2026. Open Studio: Wednesday, December 2, 5–7 pm. Two Coats of Paint, 22-19 41st Avenue, 6th Floor, Studio #10, Long Island City, NY.
Studio Playlist: “Two podcasts I’ve been listening to lately: The Selection Committee Radio Show, with Nate Heiges, which invites artists to create a mixtape and then Nate interviews the artists between their music picks. And Unstretched, a podcast with artists Gina Beavers and Timothy Hull.”
Upcoming:
Solo show, New England College, Henniker, NH, 2027.
Solo show, A.I.R. Gallery , New York, NY, 2027
About the author: Sharon Butler is a painter, publisher of Two Coats of Paint, and director of the Two Coats of Paint Residency Program.
