Rachel Schali

I have primarily shown in non-commercial spaces. Such as Southern Exposure and A.I.R. in San Francisco. El Morro Area Arts Council, Jemez Fine Art, and Art 123 in New Mexico where I have shown student work and my own. My early work was painted, shaped wall installations. They were about travel, color, maps and events. The pieces became more autonomous later, while still experimenting with materials and painting on unusual surfaces, often making my own paint. Subjects included boats, wings, and tools. After having children I painted portraits of family, friends, and people of diverse cultures or circumstances that deserved more respect. Recent works are experimenting with shape, color and process to create unpredictable works to surprise myself and represent spontaneous and uncontrollable outcomes. Recent works were inspired by the Ukrainian diaspora, diasporas in general, and Bedouin tents, which represent the illusion of permanence. I’m also interested in including only the most essential points to create shapes and color. The work is becoming more abstract and still about spontaneous, unpredictable outcomes. Currently, my work is about color and how gravity affects shapes over time. I had a dream where I wanted to use shapes in a dance. I asked dancers to dance the curves and shapes they said they didn’t know how. This woke me up, in the next dream, I dreamt that a curve is something that falls in gravity.

When I was 25 I moved to San Francisco and Oakland, California. I did large scale wall installations of cut pieces of painted plywood depicting travels or events related to locations. I was influenced by color, space, maps, and arial photography. I am currently using similar elements of shapes installed on a wall in single more essential forms, that still interact with each other. I went to graduate school at Mills Collage, and worked more 3d, still working mostly on a wall, making tools, boats, wings, hats. and walls. I was influenced by Ron Nagle. His sense of random form is still inspiring. I married had 2 children got an education degree and moved to New Mexico in 2004 to teach art in Zuni. My painting became more about people and places. After 2016 I did diverse portraits, about unique differences and beauty, in response to white supremacy. I painted watercolor portraits of nurses with mask scars during covid. Recently I started finding raw wood shapes on the land and making sculptures from wood scrapes, painted with encaustic paint. I’m working on shaped canvases designed to surprise myself with color and folds because not much is in anyone’s control, and I like surprises. The current series was initially inspired by the Ukrainian diaspora, and bedouin tents. Influences are Guiseppe Penone, Japanese woodblock prints, Alice Neel, Brenda Luckin, Elizabeth Murray, Ron Nagel, Jackie Windsor, Sam Gilliam, Richard Tuttle, and Ree Morton.

2-D, 3-D, Painting (all materials)