Rachel has been painting, with much encouragement from her father, since she was 6 years old and she has never really put her paint brushes down. She has been exhibiting nationally for almost ten years and had her museum debut in 2022 for the group exhibition: 18th Regional Juried Exhibition at the Freeport Art Museum curated by Cleveland Dean.
Rachel’s earliest works were highly influenced by teacher Frankie Johnson. Johnson taught Rachel not only the basics and fundamentals of acrylics and oils but also became a mentor of sorts well into Rachel’s adult years at Mainstreet Art Center.
Rachel’s work took a major shift while studying painting at DePaul University from 2011-2013. It was there that she felt she was given permission to explore painting beyond the constraints of traditional realism. With a nudge from professor and artist Mark Zlotkowski, the discovery of other renowned artists like Gerhard Richter and Robert Rauschenberg, who worked in multiple mediums, she began pushing the limits within her work stylistically. In 2024, Rachel was accepted into Ty Nathan Clark’s mentorship program which pushed her to explore working three dimensionally. She considers herself a multidisciplinary artist.
Rachel’s work is highly exploratory and expressive and she is heavily influenced by the abstract and Neo expressionism movements. She draws a great amount of inspiration from nature, the human condition, emotions, memories and current events. In 2023 Rachel moved from Chicago, to a small beach community in the Indiana Dunes with her partner and has been living and creating work there since. Rachel’s work is currently represented in Lake Zurich.
I am a conduit of ideas, emotions and memories. My exploration as a multidisciplinary expressionist, is fueled by my curiosity and ambition to enhance our understanding of human nature and experiences, emphasizing their connection to nature. By exploring multiple mediums, I aim to show the complex nature of humanity.
The process behind my work includes intake, foraging and collecting alongside reflection, arranging, layering and exerting energy into each piece. My materials are vast and often include acrylic, oil, spray paint, cold wax, wood, found objects, graphite, colored pencil, thread, and collaged paper. My goal is to be a channel not a conductor, while constantly seeking to push new boundaries in my work both spiritually and aesthetically. This allows for unintended developments as well as spontaneous marks and interactions. I then let the piece reveal what it needs to me, rather than force it to completion. This is often gradual and patient work, which forces me to slow down and dig deeper into what the work is trying to say.
Each piece reveals something to me and about me, they are a journey of exploration and self discovery. I invite the viewer to reflect on what each piece reveals to them and to find their own new meanings within my work. In such a fast moving world I hope that my work forces the viewer to slow down and look closer, and just maybe feel something.
