Ignoring The Mess

March 2026

I was looking back over some early writings in which I discussed the advent of studio visitors being the impetus for cleaning my studio. (This is true for visitors to my home, also.) It made me giggle a little bit. Nothing has changed.

Back then, when my studio was an airtight, modern structure, it was mainly clutter that needed tidying. These days, with my draughty, decrepit old building surrounded by trees and vines and weeds, it includes a LOT of boxelder bugs and such like. Also, there are no screens on my windows and I leave the door open if it’s over 50 degrees, so a lot of leaves and other detritus makes its way in. And since my recycling and trash cans are all the way over by my house, piles tend to accrue. Plus the afore-mentioned clutter.

I’m slightly embarrassed at the state in which I’m able to paint, the extent to which I can ignore the mess. It’s part necessity (there’s only one of me), but also, I don’t really see it until I have someone coming over. Then I’m horrified. But not enough to change my ways.

So just be aware, all you studio visitors: you’ve never really seen the truth. Not sure you could handle it.

Warmly,

Rachel (undistracted by chores)

p.s. I am not a hoarder. Truly. Just clutter-blind. Car, closet, home, studio. Yard. Okay, it may be a problem. Send help.

In the Studio:

Ramping up for shows, piling up the paintings:

All That’s Been, 24x24 inches, oil on canvas, $1750.

All The Memories, 24x24 inches, oil on canvas, $1750.

For All Of Nature, Sing, 48x72 inches, oil on canvas, $6550.

Top: For All Of Life, 20x60 inches, oil on canvas, $3450.
Bottom: Comes Forth Singing, 20x60 inches, oil on canvas, $3450.

Forever Turning, 20x60 inches, oil on canvas, $3450.

Collector Corner

A Constant Consolation, 72x24 inches, oil on canvas, hanging in this collector’s Underwood, WA, home. It’s been there a while, but I think it slipped through the cracks for being highlighted in the Collector Corner, so here it is! Thank you so much for your longtime support of my work, Kelly D.!

SHOW SCHEDULE

APRIL

24: Spring Members Show, PAM Rental Sales Gallery. 1237 SW 10th Ave at Jefferson, Portland, OR. Opening reception 4-7pm.

Please patronize these galleries:
Art on Oak, & Stave & Stone Winery in Hood River, OR; PAM's Rental Sales Gallery in Portland, OR. Check them out!

Passage

The sky was searingly, excruciatingly blue, like it was crying out at being fried in the heat. My ears thrummed with the buzz of a thousand life forces. I think sometimes the earth’s heartbeat is loudest in the sunshine. I felt like an exposed root poking up out of the dirt, every miniscule sensation burning like I’d never experienced anything before. The sun beamed through my eyelids and illuminated my veins, coloring my vision bright red. I was lying down in my backyard with my ear down to the dirt, wind brushing over my skin and competing with the sun’s warmth, listening to the deep thump of the earth. As I grew older, I came to understand that what I was hearing was actually just my own heartbeat amplified by the pressure, but I still loved hugging trees and listening for a long time. My breath tickled little grass blades. My knees and shirt were most definitely stained green by then, juices leached from the clover I’d crushed. I often found myself wishing I could sink into the ground and be cocooned in the cool, dark womb of the earth.

-second excerpt from an essay by Ella Harvey

ABOUT MY NEWSLETTER

New pieces, works in progress, notifications of art shows and other happenings, insights into my artistic process and always, some philosophical ramblings thrown in for free. Unlike myself, my art has no façade, no pretense, no anxiety, no insecurity. My work is always, and completely, reverent, sincere, earnest, transparent. It represents me at my best.