RACHEL DOLEZAL, MFA

ARTIST STATEMENT

Humans make art, but art makes us human. Our drive to create and produce is one of the earliest pursuits that sets our race apart from all other species and helps us make sense of the world we live in.

I cultivate a continual expansion of the visual language by expressing through a wide variety of mediums and style. Whether navigating emotions and physicality of the human form through figurative work, exploring the human presence or absence within a landscape, or probing existential questions through color, shape and texture in abstract work, my art refuses to be confined to one technique or style, navigating fluidly through and between different bodies of work.

Since my earliest childhood experiences of making things, my art has been characterized by a RESOURCEFUL use of materials, a RESILIENT spirit, and a REVOLUTIONARY drive to challenge the norm. The freedom to rotate and cross-pollinate between materials, methods, and subject matter keeps me coming back to the studio, day after day. Viewers have often described an underpinning vibe that is evidenced in my work, a feeling of resonance with the collective human spirit and a celebration of the fundamentally human act of creating.

ARTIST STORY

For Rachel Dolezal, continuing to exist and create are revolutionary acts. In her younger years, not only

was she shunned by her peers for being poor – and punished for being a girl in a patriarchal family – but her art was also judged and rejected.

As someone who wasn’t born visually “matching” the culture she was drawn to, her fight against oppression and racism has met opposition from both sides of the Color Line. Nonetheless, she has won numerous awards for her leadership, teaching, and art. Her art has at times been dismissed, belittled and criticized, yet has also garnered favorable attention and earned her a full-tuition scholarship for her Master of Fine Arts degree at Howard University, exhibitions in thirteen states, national awards, and international collectors.

Rachel’s journey began in a teepee on a mountainside in Montana, where she grew up without access to traditional art supplies and created with elk hide, eggshells, recycled magazine paper, and other found materials. Her current work showcases a mastery of her formal training in traditional materials, while also highlighting her resourceful use of materials -utilizing eggshells as a sub-texture for portraiture, creating color files with upcycled papers for collages, and molding elk hide into bas relief sculpture. Feelings of isolation and rejection characterized Rachel’s childhood and continue to influence much of her mature works, with most of her figurative pieces depicting a solitary figure rather than a subject experiencing acceptance within a group or community.

Dolezal’s exhibition career began in Jackson, Mississippi, where she had her first one-woman show at age 19 in the Smith Robertson Museum and sold her first original for $1250. At age 20, she was presented with the Michelangelo Award, an honor rarely bestowed to art students at Belhaven College. Showing in juried competitive shows for the next several years, Rachel’s work was also on display at the United Nations headquarters in New York, won thirteen out of fourteen graduate awards at Howard University, and landed in the permanent collections of Tougaloo College, Howard University and Belhaven College, among many private and corporate collections. When she relocated back to the Pacific Northwest in 2004, she lost some of the momentum that shaped her early exhibition career. Rachel has since re-established her presence as a professional working artist, recently having her art discussed in Art in America & ARTnews.

Rachel’s art is for everyone. Whether you are a serious art collector or are embarking on your first original purchase, collecting her original works is a sound investment. Rachel works hard to keep her prices lower than some Master Artists, because she believes that original artwork should be accessible to every individual who connects with an image. Her work touches a broad range of viewers, and the quality and conservation standards are of the highest investment and longevity caliber.

To read the whole story behind Rachel’s art,
find her memoir “In Full Color” here

This is an image of "In Full Color", a book by Rachel Dolezal

Doležal synthesizes history and cultural studies in her art and believes that the creative process is part of what makes us human and shapes our identity in the world. Doležal instructed art as a graduate student at Howard University and helped launch the Howard University Young Artist’s Academy (HUYAA) in 2001, winning numerous awards for her talent. She taught in the Art Departments at North Idaho College and Eastern Washington University.

Awards in art include: Visitor’s Choice Award, Best of Show, the Michelangelo Award, and First Place in Experimental Media

Education

Rachel Doležal earned her MFA summa cum laude from Howard University and has lectured as a professor of Art History and Black Studies at Eastern Washington University, North Idaho College and Whitworth University. Courses she has taught include: African and African American Art History, African History, African American Culture, African American History from 1877-present, Introduction to Race & Culture Studies, The Black Woman’s Struggle, Research Methods in Race & Culture Studies, Black Women & Hair, Art Education, Introduction to Africana Studies, Race & Ethnicity, and Survey of Art. Her scholarly research focus is the intersection of race, gender and class in visual culture within the contemporary African Diaspora.

Dolezal guest lectured at Spokane Community College, University of Idaho, Gonzaga University and Washington State University and was the Advisor for the Black Student Unions of North Idaho College and Eastern Washington University. Dolezal was a regular contributing writer for The Black Lens newspaper and the Inlander. Her written work can also be found in a Rutgers University textbook, The War on Poverty: A Retrospective and her early memoir, In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World. Rachel’s life work emphasizes racial and social justice activism, and she is a licensed Intercultural Competency & Diversity Trainer.

Awards in education include: Outstanding Professor & Mentor and Keeper of the Dream Award.

Artist and Activist

Rachel Dolezal began her activism in Mississippi, where she advocated for equal rights and partnered with community developers, tutoring grade-school children in Black history and art and pioneering African American history classes at a predominantly white university.

She is the former Director of Education at the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and was a Consultant for human rights education and inclusivity in regional Inland Northwest public schools. She served as Chair of the Office of Police Ombudsman Commission, overseeing police accountability & justice in law enforcement in Spokane, WA and was President of the Spokane NAACP, before her personal identity was publicly criticized.

Although she lost all her jobs amidst the media firestorm of 2015, she continues undeterred in her pursuit of excellence as an Artist, Mother, and Advocate for others. Dolezal has helped launch the Second Chance Program, a non-profit organization aimed at reducing recidivism rates and poverty for Black youth in Antigua and Barbuda, she developed a program for Chicago’s Englewood and Austin youth, and worked with leaders in Las Vegas to improve fair housing. She recently completed the Master Gardener program through the University of Arizona and advocates for inclusive education, access to clean food and water, autism awareness, and sustainable small farms.

Awards in activism include: Bill First Human Rights Award, Woman in Nonprofit Leadership, Torchbearer Medal, and Woman of Distinction.

For more on Rachel’s story, you may purchase her book, “In Full Color, Finding My Place in a Black and White World” here or purchase a signed copy within the store.