JULY 2025
CENTER GALLERY
Invasive Flora, Intricate Prints | Rachel Singel
My work is a response to the intricacies and depth of natural forms Lines are the building blocks of my imagery. Lines develop into curves, from curves to circles, and then to fields. As each line extends outward, the form begins to resemble how it occurs in nature: preconditioned, though subject to the elements around it.
Beyond bringing attention to the immense complexity of the natural world, one of my primary goals as an artist is to raise environmental consciousness. I print on handmade papers made from recycled materials such as old cotton shirts and linen sheets, as well as plant fibers, especially those of invasive plants. Conceptually, the union of process and subject embodies an important metaphor for my views. I hope that making sheets by hand not only can help the environment, but also can promote sustainability.
Rachel Singel is an Associate Professor at the University of Louisville. Rachel grew up on a small farm in Charlottesville, Virginia. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia in 2009 and a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Iowa in 2013. Rachel has participated in residencies at the Penland School of Crafts, the Venice Printmaking Studio, Internazionale di Grafica Venezia, Art Print Residence in Barcelona, Spain, Wharepuke Print Studios in New Zealand, Proyecto'ace, an Artist-in-Residence Program in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and AGA Lab in the Netherlands. She has studied non-toxic printmaking at the Grafisk Eksperimentarium studio in Andalusia and recently traveled to Japan to research papermaking with invasive plants. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and represented in private collections and public institutions.
Photographs by Hans Hallinen