Artist in Residence 2024 | The Access | Tempe, AZ
Rae Wilson
Rae is a wonderful addition to our Artist in Residency program, hosting lighthearted, fun, educational classes and creative social events to the community.
A little more background on Rae:
"I am a mostly self-taught artist from Central Illinois. I received private art lessons in oil painting as a child, but have grown to love working with acrylic mediums. I attended Columbia College Chicago briefly as an interior architecture major with a minor in cultural studies. That journey proved not to be my exact path and led me to pursuing fine arts via canvas paintings and mural works. Summer 2016 I completed eight small murals for a local restaurant before moving back to Chicago where I interned and maintained employment with Green Star Movement, A mural arts organization. I have since worked alongside and been mentored by some incredible established artists. In 2022 I completed a 6ft x 6ft canvas painting for a Starbucks retail location in the heart of Downtown Chicago. I am currently an Artist In Residence with the City of Tempe, a recycled materials instructor for youth first - third grade, an oil and acrylic painting instructor for seniors at two centers in Scottsdale, AZ and I often lead paint and sip events. Primarily using paint, I am a visual storyteller who uses birds, plants, circles and portraiture to make connections in the human condition.”
"The first sketch of every painting is simply a suggestion. If I just keep painting eventually everything finds its place. It is often that the process parallels the final product. If the painting is sad then the sketches were sadder.
I find it very suspicious that everything is a circle; a symbol of unity bringing together elements across space and time. My work tells personal stories of intersection and contrast. I began painting on two canvases I found in the dumpster behind my job, it wasn't my first time ever, it was just my first time seriously. The artist before me can best be described as an amateur. Their brush strokes felt wild, unintentional, and heavy. I wanted to preserve some of that geometric energy for my first cactus. I had painted most of the canvas and found that a big circle or two would have to hold the work of the previous artist, and it did. Suddenly it's all made up and everything makes a circle. That one experimental painting has brought me to where I am today. The parallels I find in a story become circular, and telling those stories is all about preservation."
"I intend to share my own creative practice of storytelling by helping others find their voice in it. It would be such a privilege to lead people who live in close proximity to each other in workshops meant to find connections. I think that the irony of that is far too great.”
"Green Star Movement was a mural arts organization whose mission was to beautify under-served communities with their help in order to create a sense of pride in their neighborhoods. We partnered with the City of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools, often that looked like facilitating a group of volunteers and/or students in mosaic tile applications.
This past fall I completed a 6 week residency at Marcos De Niza High School where I led a self-portrait workshop with their advanced studio artists, and in my residency with the City of Tempe I visit fourteen 2nd grade classrooms 4 times each per school year where I guide them through art projects I designed, meant to focus and expose them to their own social emotional needs/skills. I absolutely love instructing art to anyone who is willing and eager to learn.”
