About Me
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
I am inspired by everyday miracles,
how one seed transforms into chamomile, another kale, how birch leaves turn into tambourines each fall, and witch hazel blooms in winter. I am awed by the everyday, when I experience life instead of skimming it, when I witness a swallowtail butterfly’s emergence, and hold my breath with hope that its wings will dry in time for an inaugural flight before it’s snapped up by bird beak.
The cyclical nature of my backyard and gardens—along with each season’s rituals in an urban landscape of neighborhood gatherings and candlelit evenings—nourish my creativity. I gravitate towards colored pencils and watercolor paint, letterpress printing and paper crafts. A background of study in art history and graphic design—and a childhood spent sewing and singing—all guide my impulse to integrate beauty with daily life.
I write and sing and draw as a way to understand my tender yet tenacious self,
as well as to repair relationships within our fragile communities. The melancholic edge of a lullaby or the beautiful ache of the blues underpin my aesthetic, originating from a place of wonder, encouraging curiosity, yet keeping a sense of humor.
Daily reading (mostly novels and narrative nonfiction) and listening to music (anything from alt rock to orchestral to jazz) give my active imagination a structure in which to flourish. Like nature, art is a reciprocal gift.
“I have been honored to follow the progress of Rachel Gabriel's writing. Her excellent thesis, SOUVENIR DE PARIS, is a smart, vivacious, painterly, and always beautifully written coming of age memoir.”
- Molly Peacock
THIRD PERSON BIO
Meet Rachel Gabriel
An award winning teaching artist, Rachel Gabriel offers personalized, one-on-one writing lessons for anyone in need of a patient guide and wordsmith. Her clients are creatives of all stripes, including small business owners (therapists), writers (memoirists, journalists, and poets), artists (illustrators and book artists), and performers (dancers and musicians).
Through work in the nonprofit sector, Ms. Gabriel develops and implements programming to nourish and encourage creative fluency within diverse, intergenerational groups of learners. She has shared her enthusiasm for writing and literature with youth and adults at the Loft Literary Center, the Grand Marais Art Colony, Write On, Door Co. and at national conferences for the Transformative Language Arts Network. She was the founder and facilitator of several community initiatives, including Mama Ray’s Story Time at Moon Palace Books and Peace Craft: A Neighborhood Hub for Holistic Wellness.
Ms. Gabriel lives with her family near the storied Mississippi River in the American Midwest. If the sun is out, she is most likely tending her wild garden and taking solace in a monarch butterfly sighting. In her opinion, a perfect day includes making something by hand and dancing in the kitchen.
Rachel Gabriel is a multi-passionate creative and entrepreneur, a visual artist, life-long musician, and a novelist by way of memoir. Her work has been honored with awards from the Ragdale Foundation and the Loft Literary Center. As an alumna of the Loft’s celebrated Mentor Series program, Ms. Gabriel began her writing apprenticeship under the guidance of poet and biographer, Molly Peacock.
Ms. Gabriel holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Hamline University where she pursued an interdisciplinary approach to literary development, including its pedagogy. She studied poetry with Deborah Keenan, fiction with Sheila O’Conner, and creative nonfiction with Barrie Jean Borich and Patricia Weever Francisco. This multi-genre foundation led Ms. Gabriel to write a memoir, combining the lyricism of poetry with the narrative modes of fiction.
At the heart of Ms. Gabriel’s vocation is a belief in the transformative potential of creative expression to serve as a catalyst for sustainable change.
FIRST PERSON BIO
“The Ballad of Rachel Gabriel”
Grandpa said I’d be a teacher. Grandma wanted me to write.
I longed to be a singer, but for that I’d have to fight.
Instead I went to college and left with two degrees:
One in English, one in French, but with neither, was I pleased.
I took a break from reading and worked the nine to five.
I learned to copy, cut, and paste, but I didn’t feel alive.
My dreams were filled with Paris, my heart was filled with song,
I married my handsome sweetheart, and time galloped along.
We followed the Mississippi north, and made our home near it
In cities twined we happily found an urban scene we fit.
I worked in a museum, and returned to books
Seminary for a year . . . then I was caught by the Artist’s hook.
To draw! To paint! To write! To sing! Such desires were well hidden
While in search of God, my creativity was bidden.
And so I wrote some poems and a memoir as a quest
To travel deep within for peace instead of East or West.
The third time I returned to school, I earned my M.F.A.
A teacher and a writer--well, my grandparents had their way.
Along the path of graduate school, two babies I did bear
What wonder they inspire in me; the world is ours to share!
Time still is swift, my children grow as I reclaim my voice
With music and with book arts, stories still are my life’s choice.
Two child-muses live with me and show me how to be:
An open heart, an open mind will keep one’s spirit free.
Together, we practice gratitude, compassion, empathy--
Belly laughs and barefoot dance, the stars our canopy.
Keep close, dear friend, for one day soon you’ll hold proof of my dreams:
Illustrations! Albums! Books! All swim my creative stream.
