Awareness: Rachel Gregor

Rachel Gregor inspires me as someone also named Rachel. (just kidding)

I was flipping through a New American Paintings book and her work caught my eye. The three pieces were Pond Scum, Fourth of July, and Mudtrout (Ophelia II). She has a similar realistic yet painterly and saturated style to what I want. She also did portraits with a lot of emotion, like me.

Here's her website: https://www.rachelgregor.com

She's was raised in Minnesota and is based in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from Kansas City Art Institute in 2012 with a BFA and studied abroad at Studio Art College International in Florence, Italy. She was a resident at the Charlotte Street Urban Culture Project.

She has had many group and solo exhibits. For example, she had a solo show called "Roulette" in Global Jet Capital Headquarters and one called "Other Places - Fairy Fruit" in the Yard Gallery in New York. She is represented by Hashimoto Contemporary, a gallery in three locations: Los Angelos, San Francisco, and New York City.

Behind the Fence (part of the "Still Summer" series)

Gouache & Watercolor on Toned Paper

41 x 29

2023

The "Still Summer" series is about the artist's summer before 9th grade. The girls featured, based on the artist's own likeness, are trapped in a purgatory between childhood and adulthood. Her themes are similar to my own, focusing on the past, and coincidently, my summer before 9th grade was also like a purgatory (COVID). The girls look annoyed, as if they were interrupted by a cameraman. I haven't considered breaking the fourth wall before, but it could be an interesting idea to explore.

Quarters Player (Bloody Knuckles) (part of the "Too Hot Outside, Too Hot Inside" series)

Gouache on Toned Paper

21 x 18

2021

What drew me to this piece was its paler/pastel quality, which is different from what I do. I think it works in this piece because it contrasts the blood of her knuckles. It made me realize that in my work, I hadn't been thinking about using color for emphasis since my wolf animation. In the future, I'll consider changing the colors to emphasize certain locations.