Artist Statement
Rachel is a multi disciplinary artist maker. She has been exploring and responding to materials, the natural world, human connections to others and objects in her environment, through a narrative of visual making mediums. She continues to find great value in discovering and incorporating new processes in her physical making, alongside the pure joy of drawing with one of the most humble tools - charcoal.
She has exhibited in Bristol, U.K. in various galleries such as the Royal West Academy, Centre Space and pop ups in both group and solo shows.
Arts for Wellbeing
Rachel has been working and developing as an Arts Facilitator in Arts and Health for a number of years, using creativity to support wellbeing. Her creative visual making workshops have a wide range of beneficiaries, including people living with dementia, hospital -based patients, care home residents and primary, secondary school & higher education students. Projects have included; Arts on Referral for NBT NHS; Alive - inter generational projects; Bath Mind - Room 627, Living Well - UWE and supporting the the Dept. of Kindness and the Cabinet of Compassion. Rachel has lectured on her wellbeing practice for the MA Arts Practice at the University of Wales
Research
Over many years, Rachel has observed students and their making journeys, through her work as a Senior Technical Instructor in the Physical Fabrication department at the University of the West of England. She has used the opportunity to engage with practice - based research at UWE to begin investigating the links between play, creativity and wellbeing in students in Higher Education students studying creative subjects.
