About the Artist

Visual Artist, Musician, Teacher, Gardener, Thinker, Activist, Mother, Wife, Sister, Daughter, Lover, Friend.
RAIN was born and raised in Chicago, and is an artist working across Poetics.
In her multimedia work, whether music or visual art, the intersection of social justice and spirituality is a thread that runs through all the disciplines of her work. As a teaching artist with students, from the classroom to the stage at the Art Institute of Chicago, she weaves a pedagogy with the same threads of spirituality and social justice.
Her paintings, prints and drawings going back over 35+ years represent an artistic practice rich in ideas, content, creativity and authenticity.
RAIN is currently a founding member of the art collective: MOTHER ART: REVISITED
Educated in the Arts at University of California, Berkeley. RAIN holds two degrees from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Master’s in Art Education, and a Master of Fine Arts. She has served as a teaching artist for the Chicago Public Schools for 22 years, and as adjunct faculty in Art Education at The School of the Art institute of Chicago.

Artist Statement

In my work, my desire is to bring the viewer into a space where they become open to the forces of imagination and spirit. I believe Art can transform us. I believe art can take us to a new awareness, create new sensations, and form. For me, the act of painting is an act of spiritual practice. I enter the painting with body and mind, searching for the images as I wander through the canvas.

In my effort to create an environment that would induce AWE, I have not yet abandoned the figure. I begin to unpaint the paintings, creating work that is more minimal, adding texture and hidden text to the work. These secret messages, these hidden words, parallel the silencing of our histories. In my desire to elicit a response from the viewer, I employ basic compositional elements of narrative, in abstraction, allowing the viewer to breath in color and form, allowing the viewer to form their own narrative, and thereby gain an insight into my investigation of the Spiritual in Art.