Rachel Berg Weaves Art Identity and Nature into Cultural Tapestry

00:00:02

 

I know, I know you’ve heard this before. It’s not a new question, but the answer is always evolving. So, we can’t stop asking, what’s your why? I am your host, Emy DiGrappa. What’s your why? Is brought to you by Wyoming Humanities. This show explores the human experience with nationally and internationally renowned humanists, authors, journalists, philosophers, artists and scientists. We adventure into conversations about where they’ve been, what makes them tick, and how their history relates to the greater world and to you. My special guest today is Rachel Berg. Rachel works in diverse media as an artist, teacher, and the founder of Live Artfully Studio. Welcome, Rachel.

 

00:00:53

 

Thank you for having me. I’m delighted to be here.

 

00:00:55

 

Well, I want you to know first off that I love your name. That’s the name of my oldest daughter.

 

00:01:00

 

Aww. Rachel or Olivia? Rachel.

 

00:01:04

 

Rachel. Right. So, your, your name, your full name is Rachel Olivia Berg?

 

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Yes.

 

00:01:12

 

Yep.

 

00:01:13

 

I was really so intrigued by your multi ethnicity cultural background. And tell me if I’m saying this right. Minakuju.

 

00:01:24

 

Yes.

 

00:01:25

 

Yeah. And you know, I’m, I’m actually not someone to ask because I myself am very timid about the pronunciation of Lakota. I’m not a fluent speaker, but it.

 

00:01:37

 

Is still part of your cultural heritage. And tell me a little bit more about Mnicoujou, Lakota, Mexican and German. And where does that lineage run in your family?

 

00:01:48

 

That is the crux of, you know, this whole question of, of what is my why. So my mother is Mnicoujou and Mexican and I was raised, I was born and raised in South Dakota. That there’s a caveat there, because I also moved to the EAS when I was in middle school. But we always maintained our home in South Dakota and always maintained that really close connection to my family and my tribe. And my father is originally from New Jersey and he’s of German heritage. And culturally, I was also, after moving from the west to the east, I became very close with my father’s family as well. And the Mexican is a very, very important part of our lineage because my family is a large native Mexican family that grew up like my mother spent half of her childhood. She also, like me, kind of was in multiple places and was in El Paso, Texas and on Cheyenne River Reservation in Eagle Butte. So all of these things, all of my heritages and lineages and cultures I really respect and are a very, very important part of my worldview. So there’s, there’s always a lot going on and it’s a very, it’s, it’s sometimes it’s It’s a. It’s a lot to bear because there is so much. There can be some dissonance between cultural understandings and the way that things are. But, you know, I ex. As I am. And here we are.

 

00:03:39

 

That’s right. Here we are. Was your mom born in Mexico?

 

00:03:43

 

No, in El Paso. And she was. She was actually. I, you know.

 

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Oh, gosh.

 

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She’s going to be. She’s going to be horrified that I don’t remember this, but I believe she was born in South Dakota.

 

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Oh, okay.

 

00:03:53

 

Yeah, she. I know she’s gonna be like, what. These are things that. That I know. I. Yeah, I believe she was born in South Dakota, an old agency which has. Doesn’t exist anymore, actually. It was flooded reservoir.

 

00:04:10

 

Yeah.

 

00:04:10

 

Okay. Well, I came from a big Hispanic family. My. My father’s New Mexican, but my mom. My mom’s parents were both born and came from Mexico. And my mom’s first language was Spanish. Does your mom speak Spanish?

 

00:04:26

 

So. No, she doesn’t. And I. I always. And I don’t know this to be. You know, my grandfather is not. Not here anymore, so I can’t ask anymore. But I always understood that there was kind of. Because. Because the kids were all in El Paso, that there was really a big.

 

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Push, especially for the girls to speak.

 

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English and learn English and just, you know, have English as. As the focus. I know that my uncles speak Spanish, and I studied Spanish as much as I could, although, as I noted with the Lakota, I. It’s.

 

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It’s one of my.

 

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I become very shy when I’m operating. I think I might be shy in, too, but I become very shy when I’m operating in. In other languages. But that does not diminish my interest or my desire to read and to be, you know, to be a learner. Yes. So, yeah, language is one of those things that’s just so important. And it’s actually one of those things that. Because my. My mother is a writer and, you know, words and language and storytelling has always been just one of the most important things. And as I continue on my path of discovery and questioning in the world, language is one of those things that just keeps coming up as one of. As my. How can I say it? Just one of my big motivators. The things that’s the hardest, you know, one of the things that I really struggle with and I’m challenged by. And I can continue to.

 

00:06:06

 

To learn.

 

00:06:08

 

That’s really good. And the reason, I think that you struggle with that, because the language is part of the soul. When. Especially when you’re in the Mexican American culture, Hispanic culture, and your grandparents and your parents speak all these dichos, these sayings, and they’re not really. They’re not translatable. I mean, they can tell you what they mean, but they still have a very special meaning in. In its own language.

 

00:06:43

 

Absolutely. And, you know, I’ve come across that so many times recently. I think in the last five years, I’ve really spent a lot of time trying to even. Just find the words. If. Even if I don’t have.

 

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Especially in Lakota, if. Even if I don’t have the sentence.

 

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Structure or the whole. The whole understanding of how to say it, I just want to.

 

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The word.

 

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And as I have been going on this journey, there are things that I understand intuitively, things that were taught to me, things that are just a part of my being. And it’s like all of a sudden I learned the word and I go, oh, I have a word now that suddenly fills a piece of me that I didn’t experience or that I experienced but didn’t. Couldn’t articulate or express without all these complicated adages and cultural references. So, yeah, I mean, I think it’s really interesting that we’re starting this conversation with language because it really is that aspect that, I mean, so much of. Of my work and. And what I’m trying to spend my time doing is. Is reclaiming and healing from. From these kind of traumas that I didn’t even know how deeply rooted they were in. In my identity, you know, because I. I can the.

 

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About the Lakota language.

 

00:08:06

 

My grandmother. My grandmother, who is, you know, a Lakota woman who was raising 11 children in Texas who, you know, were all mija, mijo and language.

 

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She had.

 

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She had grown up most of her youth. All of her youth was at. Was at mission boarding schools. So she was raised in an environment where she couldn’t speak her language. And although I know she knew Lakota, I. I honestly only have very little.

 

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1. I remember her saying words, not.

 

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Dialogues, you know, and so those are the kinds of things that my generation in particular kind of sits with, whereas generations just under me are really, really well versed and fluent in these languages. I think that could be true for Spanish as well, although I don’t know as much about how that.

 

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But I have many, many bilingual friends with many.

 

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And they’re raising their children completely b. And I think it’s. It’s just such a. Such a. It’s at the crux of culture and how we communicate.

 

00:09:16

 

Oh, absolutely. I agree 1000%. I really. I really feel it in my family. I just think it’s so interesting how Texas, New Mexico, even California, I feel like the Native American is much more woven into those cultures. And so it’s really interesting to see how you have Native American and Mexican, and the Mexican is the. The mestizo. Right. It’s the Spaniard and the Indian. It’s just so woven, you. You can’t take it apart. It’s like a tapestry.

 

00:09:58

 

Yeah, it truly is. And I think.

 

00:10:00

 

I think as far as my personal.

 

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Identity and why in general, you know, it’s funny because I toyed around with kind of how, you know, you. You think about these things as an.

 

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Artist, how you’re presenting yourself, how you’re talking about yourself.

 

00:10:14

 

And it was a really important thing, and it actually. It was born from a conversation with my mother, because I had been. I had been saying Lakota, and, you know, and she’s just like, so why aren’t you saying. And I. I really was thinking about it, and I think there’s a discomfort some, you know, always for all of us when we are kind of claiming and identifying these cultures. When you claim it. Oh, I’m getting really heavy. I know, but, you know, there’s. There’s always. Somebody’s got to say something about something, you know, and so it’s. And. And coming out kind of as I’ve been doing this, because I, you know, I. I am out of it at an age where I’ve had a full, robust career doing something, and I’ve had a pivot in my career. So, you know, I’m at an age where I was just kind of very cautious. And. And just. Just to your point, you know, when I really thought about it, I was like, these are one in the same, but they’re also.

 

00:11:15

 

They’re very distinct differences.

 

00:11:18

 

And there was a very different experience being. You know, it’s one thing being the native person in Texas, but then when my family and my mom and all of my aunties and my grandma went back to South Dakota, there was a very different thing being Mexican within Lakota culture, you know, and there’s.

 

00:11:41

 

And.

 

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And that’s a very important part of our family and our name, you know, our name among. In our community, we.

 

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We are other.

 

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In. In many cases, you know, those things form you. And in our case, our family is.

 

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Very, very close, and we’re very large.

 

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And we had a matriarch.

 

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We have a patriarch.

 

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You know, we have these things that are cultural from, from our Mexican heritage. So that’s why I really, I, I, I really thought about it. And, and also, and, and let’s not forget the German, because, you know, I mean, to the point I’ve had the same experience with learning German words that I’ve had with learning Lakota words. You know, that, that there are things that are inherent within, within our fibers, within the fabric of just who we are, that, that do come from these places that are very real and experienced.

 

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And learned and in our blood.

 

00:12:44

 

How great is that, though, that you have those experiences and that you can love each of those parts of your cultural heritage and your lineage and appreciate what each one is? Because I’m sure the German pride is just as powerful as the Mexican pride or the Lakota pride. They have their own. And I don’t think, unless you come from a cultural background. And I find this very interesting because when you’re Cuban or Puerto Rican or Mexican or South American, Argentine, Colombian, they’re all very different. Just because they speak Spanish, people want to just clump them all together, but they’re all very unique.

 

00:13:37

 

Yep. I remember, you know. Oh, gosh, I don’t even remember how many years ago, but in African American discourse, there was always, we’re not a monolith. We’re not a monolith. And I was like, yeah, we’re not. No one is, though. That’s all of these identities. And I think that’s what I was kind of pointing to before, when I was like, we’re going to get deep here in identity. But because it. There’s always a kind of risk that you feel somehow, because it is part of the human condition, I think, to try to, to group us together like that. And so, so no matter where we go, there’s always some sort of conflict even, even how centered or, or squarely you feel in one culture. Like you’re saying there’s. That there’s other cultures that are around us that are existing with their full being as well. So, I mean, I. This is. This is really part of my work, because what I. What this very same conversation and this very same conflict that I have literally on a daily basis within my own, within myself, you know, it always leads me to the same place, which is that we’re. We are all connected. And those differences are very important. And our beings, you know, our beings and our beingness is all very valid. So. So I want to. I try to. I really do try to find ways to have that, because that’s kind of like. It’s kind of Like a, a fight between like emotional, spiritual, and also and very logical understandings of ourselves and where we orient ourselves. So I really like to try to, to find that, that place that, that is in between all of those things that everyone can relate to. And because I’ve been very, very circumstance to have these families that have truly accepted, supported and allow. We allow each other to be who we are. And I’m, I’m so thankful for that. You know, I, I’m thankful for that.

 

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Freedom to just be.

 

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So.

 

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Yeah, this is, this is some, some serious stuff.

 

00:16:00

 

I want to hear about your, your journey in the arts and how you started and what were the jumping off points that you said. This is what I want to do with my life.

 

00:16:13

 

Yeah, so I was always one of those kids that I kind of was really interested in a lot of things. And thankfully my parents provided so many opportunities for me to educate myself. They educated me so many opportunities for me to try different things. So it was one of those things. And plus, my mother is a very, you know, she was really driven academically and because of that I had a lot of experiences traveling and I was.

 

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Aware of this greater world.

 

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And so it was really important for me to follow in that footsteps of pursuing higher education to the level that really allowed me to explore. And so I kind of always had a really multidisciplinary, just really broad and open understanding of things.

 

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But there were certain threads of interest.

 

00:17:11

 

That were always there for me. You know, psychology, the way, the way that we experience the world, like emotions, you know, understanding behaviors like those kinds of things was always, always very interesting to me. You know, I very easily could have gone and trained and become a psychologist. But what I noticed was happening when I was a young woman was that there was a part of, of, of.

 

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The experience of expressing myself through art.

 

00:17:43

 

And I had always had that. Where I express, I was art, music and, and I studied martial arts. So movement, those were always a part of, of just the way that I expressed. But then when, you know, when you’re at the, when you’re in. When you’re a young adult, it becomes different. Like you, you are kind of making.

 

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These claims for yourself.

 

00:18:04

 

And so that’s when I really, when I noticed that art was doing more for me than just kind of an expression that there was an expectation that I was seeing from other people around me. So I went to my undergraduate school. I was at Princeton University. And it was really interesting because they.

 

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Have a fantastic art program just for.

 

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Anyone out there who wants, who doesn’t think that. But it was tiny me. You know, it was, it was me.

 

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And one other person.

 

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And because of that and because of the resources of the institution, I was in a lot of ways really supported. And. But there was, there was conflict there because I realized at that point in time that how I was expressing was not the way that was expected of.

 

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Me to be expressing.

 

00:19:02

 

It wasn’t. You know, there was. And I’m not saying this overarchingly, just, just like a culture isn’t, isn’t one thing, but I did have the experience of kind of having to defend myself and, and say, no, no, no, this voice is, this voice is valid. And, and there was that process.

 

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But then it just really.

 

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I knew I needed to keep going because I knew that it was really important for me to learn how to say the things that I was trying to say, but I didn’t even know at the time truly that I was trying to say those things. It’s just, it was, it became a calling and a way that I could enter into conversations without the words because.

 

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As we discussed earlier in the conversation.

 

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I’ve always been a little shy when it comes to the vocalization of those things. So the, the visual media was really, really important for a way to work.

 

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Through some of that stuff.

 

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And then, you know, that being said afterwards, I kind of went into a career that was more on the commercial side where I was working with other artists in a community of other artists creating artwork that was kind of fitting more the story of my clients and the things that they were, that they.

 

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Were hiring me to do.

 

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And what was really wonderful about that, that 18 plus year career was that I really learned how to tell a story visually. I learned how to work with materials and in new and different ways. And it really was a great, and is a great way for me to practice and express and kind of have versatility within media. So from a very practical standpoint, that is just crucial. And I was a really vital part of an art community helping other artists, being a part of, of a, of a dialogue, whether it be commercial or not, you know, it was a dialogue and it was important. And then recently I think after the, during the pandemic, I really wanted to.

 

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I just, I just knew.

 

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I know it’s time. That’s the best way to say it.

 

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You just.

 

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I just knew that it was time that I was ready to, you know, tackle the questions again that I had tackled earlier and to come back to that at a different point in my life. And so far it’s just been a process of expansion, and I’m so invigorated by it and just really eager and curious and just learning so much from the new communities that I’m becoming a part of. So I think that answers the question.

 

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Of kind of like where I started.

 

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And how I got here.

 

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It was kind of the short version of.

 

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Because, you know, there was a lot.

 

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Of pieces along the way. But that live, artfully designed studio that.

 

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I created, you know, is alive and well. And I do have. I do continue to work on projects, but now I really like to. Now I’m kind of getting comfortable with these kind of almost fractured career paths, and I’m. I’m assembling them together, and I’m realizing that there’s. There’s a lot of. A lot of work to be done and healthcare spaces or public spaces that are these, quote, commercial projects, but that really do work within communities and can broaden the experience outside of just kind of a typical sales focus. So I think that’s where I am right now in terms of the growth of my career. I really am at a moment where there is so many possibilities that I haven’t explored.

 

00:23:06

 

Just to go back a little bit to understand. What was your degree from at Princeton?

 

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So my degree from Princeton was in visual arts with a minor in American studies, because at the time they did not have a native studies program.

 

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And so you’re at Princeton, which I thought was very interesting because very scholarly. And you usually don’t think of someone getting an arts degree at Princeton. I like when you mentioned that the arts program is excellent, but it’s very small. And I think that’s interesting because in that community, you probably do have to validate yourself. And maybe people think art is, you know, frivolous or it’s not science, it’s, you know, just kind of outside of those scholarly subjects. And like you were saying psychology was something you really loved. I think there’s so much psychology in art.

 

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And, you know, it’s. It’s interesting. I ponder on my. My Princeton experience quite a bit because there was so much identity formation. There was so much validation that was happening. And. But. But there was also so much, you know, to be in a place where you can really. The focus is really to expand. I mean, and while there was, of course, some sort of. I was rare because I was a. An art major. I actually don’t remember sort of any. Anybody looking down upon me or any way. That kind of hurt me anyway, because the program was.

 

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Was built in such a way that.

 

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It really was about our ideas and what our ideas, how our ideas can in fact contribute to society and to the world.

 

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And so when it’s focused in that.

 

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When it’s framed in that way, it.

 

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Does become just as serious as anything else.

 

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And thankfully, there’s not that kind of hierarchy in that environment now, whether at least from the institution. There certainly socially may have been, but I tended to be pretty confident because of the really just wonderful, wonderful scholars that were provided as my instructors and.

 

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As my mentors in the institution.

 

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So, thankfully, that overrided anything that I might have felt from, I don’t know, an engineering major or something. But, you know, and I realize that when I was talking, I didn’t mention my graduate work because I think I just, in my mind was just all into the career and this of my studio and all of my practice and art and all of that. But, you know, there was a period of time where I was in tandem to my working alongside of my studio practice. I was also a teacher. And that was extremely formative to my art practice. It was formative to my understanding of relationships and how to work with people. I went to Teachers College, Columbia University, Teachers College. At the time, you know, I was living in upper. In Hamilton Heights or Harlem or, you know, it depends on how local you are to Manhattan to say where. And, you know, I did. I actually lived in Manhattan for 18 years, which is. Which is a very, you know, that was a really, really important part of my life. Understanding that urban environment and the way that. The way that, that cities work. You know, I was always so struck by. Because I’m very, very motivated by nature with my art and imagery and such. And I was always extremely struck by how everybody assumes that the city isn’t this natural place. And I lived there for 18 years.

 

00:27:21

 

And it’s the most. It’s one of the most natural places I’ve ever been.

 

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It’s just that humans are the biggest form of wildlife there.

 

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You know, that’s an excellent way to put it. And I have never thought about it like that, but you’re absolutely right.

 

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You know, there’s just a lot more of us, you know, but if you. If you. Honestly, if, you know, there’s been moments, you know, if is a question of if. If you run into a bear in the woods or a bear or a human, who are you going to be more afraid of? And honestly, I would say the human, because there’s, you know, there’s just. Yeah, we’re. We’re a part of. We’re a part of it all. And that time at teachers College, especially specifically studying pedagogy and studying how, how we learn art, you know, it kind of really circled back that interest in psychology right back into my practice. And it was a very, very important thing. I mean, I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times. I think that teaching is one of the most creative acts that a human can do. You know, you have to figure out how to connect with someone else and literally give them something that they didn’t have before, which is, is really tremendous and remarkable. And you know, in our society doesn’t get the attention that it, it probably deserves because it is the crux of, of, of every generation and, and every tradition and everything, everything we know. So it’s, it’s those kinds of, those kinds of dichotomies that I guess that.

 

00:29:05

 

Was the wrong word, but it’s those.

 

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Kinds of things that I think about and try to imbue in my process so them out as I challenge myself. I’m so sorry about that. As I try to figure out what is going on that, that we can learn together as a community. And art making is, is, is really a very intuitive way of doing that for humans, I think.

 

00:29:33

 

So the classroom, my time in the.

 

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Classroom, my training in the classroom, it’s all very, very formative as well to.

 

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Who I am as an artist.

 

00:29:43

 

How did you get into these large scale projects? How did, how did you go from, you know, what, when you first started creating art to when you started working as a commercial artist? Is that what kind of jumped you into these really big projects that you’re doing now?

 

00:30:01

 

Yes. You know, it’s kind of like you learn. So I worked with art consulting company and I was, I started as an art advisor and I ended up as a partner in the company. And while I was working with these architects, interior designers and other art consultants, I was just learning a tremendous amount.

 

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About how things are made.

 

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Just the ways that materials work, the limitations, the qualities, all of these, just the possibilities of various materials. And in many of these projects, the scale becomes increased. And so it started my confidence within the scale. I always attribute it to being from South Dakota.

 

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And the landscape has always been my touching stone. The land has always been my touching stone.

 

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And I do attribute it to South Dakota because it taught me just both how big the land is, but also how small we are too, because you see the sky and there’s always that.

 

00:31:08

 

Interplay of those two things happening at once. Anyway, so on the subject of scale.

 

00:31:12

 

I was Never really afraid. Afraid of the grandiose. You know, I was never afraid of the big things because I know the human capability to kind of inflate everything. But it was really a practice of learning through other projects where other artists. It was their work, and I was assisting or I was helping with budgeting or. Or. Or testing materials. And it was.

 

00:31:35

 

It was through a slow and steady practice and understanding of.

 

00:31:38

 

Of commercial work and the budgets that were associated with it and all of those things. And a work has to do with repetition. So when it comes to scale, it’s kind of easy to wrap my head around how something can become large because it’s a repetition of a form or a shape or an idea that then.

 

00:32:03

 

The more and more you do it.

 

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The bigger and bigger and bigger the visual becomes. So that’s kind of, for lack of a better word, a device that I’ve frequently returned to in my work. Because repetition is a really important. Philosophically, repetition is meaningful to me and what I’m trying to express, oftentimes with this family as value, tradition, as value thinking of the future, all of these themes, and then even kind of going into the microcosm of how something small, what we’re made of, how cells replicate those kinds of things, that repetition, it’s a theme that I go back to. So it really does play to scale. Because most of my work, a lot of my work is created smaller parts that create a larger piece.

 

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And it’s one of the ways that.

 

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I work, because I kind of start.

 

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With a form or a shape or.

 

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An idea, and then I begin to just kind of grow it from there. And so scale hasn’t really intimidated me because of the practice I had working. And scale, I think, is something important that can be. There’s opportunities in spaces that are big. And I never try to limit myself to say that because a space is big, that I shouldn’t try to approach the idea of a moment in that space. And not all of my work is that large. But yeah, I think that those opportunities where there is a space that can be filled or can be explored, they really excite me.

 

00:33:49

 

Just describe to me, because I’m. I’m thinking just to picture kind of the scale. Are these projects commercial projects or non commercial? Whichever. Are they like murals? Are they sculptures? Are they mixed media? What. What exactly are they? What would you call them?

 

00:34:10

 

Yeah, so I would actually think. I think everything could fall under the umbrella of installation.

 

00:34:17

 

Okay.

 

00:34:19

 

But technically, yes, some of them are murals.

 

00:34:21

 

Some of them are created by paint on walls, some of them I’ve created using plaster and either creating stones or different kinds of forms that then get repeated in a particular pattern across a wall as a relief. Some of them are created with more geometric forms. In a lot of the work that I’ve done, especially particularly in healthcare spaces, just considering the materials, you need to think about how cleanliness and those kinds of things. I honestly typically do not try to.

 

00:35:02

 

Work in resin very much at all because just of the environmental impact that resin has.

 

00:35:07

 

But that being said, I’ve developed a way to kind of keep that to a minimum. And some spaces require that because healthcare, you know, it needs to be very, very cleanable.

 

00:35:19

 

Something is very.

 

00:35:20

 

Can be, you know, detergent and all of those things. And so keeping the. The integrity of the work while keeping the maintenance of the actual space and.

 

00:35:31

 

The function of the space.

 

00:35:33

 

I’ve done a lot with resin and I’ve also done a lot of metals and other. That again that I’ve used where I repeat the forms again for.

 

00:35:45

 

For healthcare spaces in particular, those. Those materials, oftentimes in my work, the.

 

00:35:52

 

The material is the space that it’s going into. And I recently the work that I’ve done for Land Signals project at Jackson Hole center for the Arts, that is very exciting and pivotal work for me because it was one of the times where the space and the medium themselves could tell the story in a different way. And I used clay and fabric and thread, and those materials in particular speak very.

 

00:36:27

 

And the work also is not mounted to the wall.

 

00:36:31

 

The work is suspended from a hoop. So it is exciting for me because I have not always worked.

 

00:36:39

 

I’ve worked on the large scale in.

 

00:36:40

 

Bas relief or in mural. And there are these installations.

 

00:36:45

 

This marks the first public installation that.

 

00:36:48

 

I’ve done where I was able to utilize three dimensional space in a more.

 

00:36:54

 

Experiential way in terms of the way.

 

00:36:57

 

The viewer can go around the work and also the way that the materials.

 

00:37:02

 

Themselves interact with the environment. So I’m very excited and proud actually.

 

00:37:08

 

Of that piece and the work that I did to create that piece. But also now that the pieces exist.

 

00:37:17

 

I’m watching it change in the environment.

 

00:37:21

 

And it’s been born in a way where it can now tell the story of the cycle. That piece in particular is centered around the ecosystem of the Greater Yellowstone Basin. And I focused on the Snake river and beings that are connected to the river, whether they live in it, around it, on it, drink its water, all of us, how we’re all connected every. And to have the work there, it’s.

 

00:37:58

 

Created with cyanotype prints which are created by the sun.

 

00:38:02

 

Each print is wrapped, each print which is a print of the being.

 

00:38:08

 

If it’s a fish, it’s a print of a fish.

 

00:38:10

 

If it’s a human, it’s a print of a human.

 

00:38:12

 

If it’s a stone, it’s a print of a stone.

 

00:38:14

 

All of the stones are wrapped in.

 

00:38:17

 

This fabric, which is now out in.

 

00:38:19

 

The sun and is now changing and becoming something else, living itself cycle, which is very exciting and not necessarily the.

 

00:38:28

 

Case in some of my other work, to be able to have it grow.

 

00:38:31

 

And change and kind of be alive in that way.

 

00:38:36

 

That is so interesting. Oh, my gosh. Well, tell me where people can view your work. Where online can people go and find you?

 

00:38:48

 

So my website is a good place and it is liveartfully.com and that’s liv vartfully.com I also have social media, although admittedly, I think it’s a generational thing. It’s not as robust as some of my wonderful colleagues out there who are doing amazing things on social media. I am admittedly not quite keeping up on those platforms. But, but, but my website, I do really try to get my artwork up there and it’s actually, actually a part of my process to kind of help me organize myself as I’m, as I’m growing or changing and documenting things. So, yeah, that’s probably the best place to find me.

 

00:39:39

 

Gosh, that’s so funny. Well, it’s been great talking to you, Rachel, and I’ve just really enjoyed our conversation.

 

00:39:48

 

Well, thank you so much for having me.

 

00:39:50

 

I’m just really happy to be here.

 

00:39:51

 

And have this conversation. It was wonderful as well.

 

00:40:09

 

Thank you for joining us for this episode of what’s yous why? Brought to you by Wyoming Humanities with support from Wyoming Community foundation and generously supporters like you. To learn more, go to thinkwide.org subscribe and never miss a show.