About The Artist

Mixed media experimental artist. “Beauty and spirituality inform my work.” Rachel grew up in Alexandria, Virginia where the culture, history and retail environment informed her foundation. At a young age her mother enrolled her in oil painting lessons in the Old Masters technique. She majored in Liberal Arts at Virginia Tech with concentrations in art and Interior Design. She opened her first Art/Interiors business in St. Augustine, FL. Rachel continued in that field for many years while developing her art in tandem. She also embarked on a spiritual journey and obtained a degree in Biblical Studies. She moved to western NY where she studied with mentor Mimi Schiff who had been a student of Hans Hofmann and Charles Burchfield. Rachel was a member of the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center where she held her first One-Woman show. She embraced Native American art and culture and exhibited at Tuscarora and Friends Gallery in Lewiston, NY. She also showed at Professional Artists of St. Augustine. Rachel returned to Florida in 2012 and studied with JJ Graham. She has shown at his gallery, FCAL, Ocean Art Gallery and her gallery/working studio, “I AM ART/Rachel & Friends” where she painted, taught and exhibited her work and that of others. She showed at the Appleton Museum and is an award winning artist, including being honored as the 2015 Gargiulo Art Foundation “Artist of the Year” in Flagler County. The foundation placed her work at Daytona State College. In 2016 she participated in a collaborative exhibit between Israeli and American artists that traveled from Israel through the Southeastern US through 2017. Rachel is now engrossed with creating mosaics, sculptures and jewelry for the “Recovery” line which is made from recovered and transformed styrofoam with her partner Chester Perkowski. She attended a week-long workshop in Ravenna, Italy to learn the authentic mosaic process and has studied jewelry making at the William Holland Lapidary School and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Rachel’s work is currently on exhibit in Florida at Riverside Fine Art Gallery in Daytona Beach and Arts on Granada in Ormond Beach. She is a member of Gargiulo Art Foundation, Florida Women Artists Association and Florida Society of Goldsmiths.