Alumni Spotlight: Rachael Rice

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Rachael Rice is an artist, writer and certified weirdo who crafts scroll-stopping content for people who want to shape change. We talked about Rachael’s childhood aspirations to her current work as an artist, from drawing in condensation on windows to moving into fine art and acrylic paint, to moving back toward folk art and alternative mediums with salvaged materials and natural earth pigments that may not stand the test of time (like her initial draw towards art making in window condensation).

Originally recorded in June 2021, our conversation still resonates a year later. Though our conversation is placed in time by references to the heat wave in Portland Oregon, the George Floyd racial reckoning, and discussions about the Covid vaccine, so much of what we talk about is still at issue: the planet and how we’re going to solve the climate crisis (according to Rachael: it’s not going to be by rounding up purchases at Whole Foods!); how do we decide to actually sit back and reckon with the connections between racism, power and privilege (according to Rachael: internalized capitalism is a spell, it’s in our bodies now); and how to deal with our/American/white cultural avoidance of death (according to Rachael: we’ve got to befriend death if we want to live and live more deeply; and we need to work across difference with our neighbors  and strengthen community care).

This conversation is incredibly fascinating, and Rachael is an exceptional all-around human. Follow her at:

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