An Exhibit, a Show, a Little Shop, a Little Glow

So excited for the summer...Not one, but two solos! Here's the July poster, with a detail from the titular painting, "Late Bloomer." Original is mixed media on fancy stamped 24x36 Veritable Papier D'Arches Torchon!

While I’ll be needing my paintings for a while, I am temporarily pulling them from my shop. But don't worry, this isn't a bad thing.

In June, Dock Fore (336 Fore Street in Portland, Maine) has generously loaned me their walls for a month-long solo show, Girls About Town. This one's a lighthearted collection, painted with joy, sensuality, and the vibrance of warmer days to come. Retrospective with lots of my Sleepy Goddess Fairy Girls and their animal companions you've come to know over the past few years.

The artist leisurely unwinds with a pastel portrait that could be making its grand debut—or perhaps not.

My Girls About Town will be up from June 1-June 30.

Then we're off to the Merrymeeting Center For the Arts Gallery in Bowdoinham, Maine for a more formal exhibit, Late Bloomer. *

Late Bloomer is a story of unraveling and return. For years, writing was my center—my way into the world and into myself. But somewhere along the way, the words grew quiet. Life, loss, and the slow creep of illness pulled me away from what once felt like home.

In that stillness, painting quietly emerged. Shapes, symbols, and soft figures began to bloom from the canvas. They told stories I hadn’t known I still carried; stories I desperately needed to set down, put down, release, let go. During the strange hush of the pandemic, I shared them—and something unexpected happened: people saw themselves in my work. Healing, reflection, recognition.

Late Bloomer is a quiet rebellion. A gentle act of persistence and resistance. These pieces were born not from ambition, but from necessity; art insisting on being made. The women who appear here [My Girls, TM] are listeners. They hold space. They are soft in a world that demands sharpness.

Late Bloomer is what it means to find your voice again, even if you speak in a whisper at first. To bloom, not on schedule, but when the ground is finally ready.

***

Um...That was part of my curatorial statement, as you probably guessed. Now I feel a bit shy.

Anyway, the point of this post-- and there is one-- I'm gonna need my stuff for a couple months, so I'm pulling the big paintings from the shop. Actually, scratch that. I might need them longer, I plan to pick up some art fairs in August and September, depending on how the summer plays out. Maybe we'll just want to take off somewhere fun, it's been such a weird year, amirite?

The shop will remain open, but --again-- the big, juicy paintings are on loan to me for awhile.

I'm excited, though. This is a good thing.

Hope to see you at the July reception. I'll post something between now and then. Maybe.

Love,

Rachel

• If you are either a high school student and need a letter of recommendation for higher ed, please consider volunteering as a gallery sitter with me in July. I'm working weekends. You wouldn't have to be there the days/hours, and even could be just doing coverage. Or, if you are looking for a job in the fine arts field and want a reference, same thing, I'm your Huckleberry.