Artist Bio

Rachael Van Dyke is a mid-career artist represented by LaFontsee Galleries (MI), Synchronicity Gallery (MI), BRAHM (NC), and River Centre Gallery (Ohio). She is an avid traveler as an artist in residence most recently in the historic town of Tusa, Sicily and on the remote island of Isle Royale in Lake Superior with the United States National Park Service. Van Dyke’s residencies have also included Studio Ginestrelle, Assisi, Italy, Le Jardin Botanique, in Marnay sur Seine, France, TICA with the Art Institute of Chicago, and Les Tasis located in the Ardeche Valley of Southern France. She is also a Fulbright Memorial Fund teacher recipient to Japan. Van Dyke has had solo art exhibitions with the Forest Hills Fine Art Center, the Power Center of Performing Arts in Ann Arbor, MI and the University of Michigan Hospital Gifts for Art program. She earned her MAE at the Kendall College of Art and Design and has worked 14 years as an art and design educator for all grade levels including adjunct instructor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI.  Rachael Van Dyke has participated in numerous public presentations and adult workshops including talks on art and creativity, art and the spiritual, and on how space and place influence a body of work. Van Dyke also engages in social activism through artmaking. The Future People, the design team of Van Dyke and her husband Cameron, currently is exhibiting work on tour with the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.

Artist Statement

Growing up in a large Italian and Irish family where emotions and energy were high, I learned early on to create quickly, to work collaboratively, and to not become too attached to my work. This childhood dynamic created a need in me to be aggressive in my work, often cutting through the paint surfaces and restating my lines. I want my materials to be bold and work fast with me. I find myself most comfortable when away from the tradition of easel. I am often on my hands and knees actively engaged with the painting, my bare feet exposed to the cool concrete floor of my studio. Exposing an energetic style through a variety of mark making, broad brush strokes, and bold color allows for a more natural, spontaneous, and spirited drawing in my art work. I am eager to search for shapes of color and light that fall on the planes of the ridge and valleys of the land. These organic movements are revealed in large and small scale landscape paintings, through juxtaposing patterns and colors of the farmlands and vineyards of rural United States and international regions.