Artist
EMILIE
“RAINBOW”
TOURAINE
By Olivia Brownlee
—To Make A
Long Story Short
F
ive minutes into my conversation with Emilie
Touraine, I realized I’d stepped through a wardrobe
into a sprawling forest of stories and experiences.
This last year she turned 79 (“I’m 79 going on 12…”
she tells me). I call her hotel and ask the manager to
put me through to her room, where a gravelly and
playful voice answers and very quickly recognizes
my name and intent (“I read your bio in the Chowder
and you and I have a lot in common…”). With no
warning or preamble, no hint of dry formalities, she
is mid-narrative and I’m awash in layers of images
and retrospections, getting a verbal metaphor of the
very way she paints. We talk for two hours and I hang
up and think, “My God…how do I write this article?
What journalistic ship to sail through the universe
of the life of Rainbow Touraine?” Touraine, whose
work has been described as “psychological warfare”;
Touraine, who was adopted/initiated by the Hopi
in the Southwest; Touraine, who helped end a war
with art. “You can’t make this stuff up,” she says on
the phone. It’s overwhelming, has as much depth as
breadth. Very much like her paintings.
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ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE