A R T I S T I C P O R T F O L I O

My name is Rae Pleasant and I’m an artist in North Texas. My artistic process consists of self-directed projects visualizing honest observations, authentic experiences, or imaginative escapism. Eco-friendly, economical, reclaimed, recycled, or everyday materials are used as often as possible. Working mainly on paper and cloth, in a variety of themes and styles, my collection of original artwork continues to grow and evolve. I share my work in cultural spaces, community places, and local businesses reaching diverse, local audiences. Art making will always be my cathartic escape, which means original artwork is not for sale.

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All artwork is copyrighted and not intended for reproduction.

Have a Pleasant Day
-Rae

SPELLBOOK (2013-2023) comes in the form of a soft-page book featuring text and illustration bound in a recycled leather cover. This book is a chronology of my life experiences in the arts and academia with themes of ‘bad’ feminism and racial tension running throughout. Cloth pages are printed with emails, letters, social media posts, articles, and reports that document my frustration, elation, sadness, or hopefulness in pursuit of my life goals for the last decade.

This project came to realization because I was villainized and for sending emails to other women in museums and universities expressing concerns about their mistreatment of me. I was gossiped about, sabotaged, and rejected like a witch for exercising freedom of speech about the harm they caused me. From the 1400s to the late 1700s, in Europe and the US, such interpersonal female strife could easily end in a witch accusation, trial, and hanging. Gossip and letters become spells in the mind of a zealous and misguided mob. Hence why this book of emails is called Spellbook because of the hysterical reaction from my peers they incited.

N E W Artwork 2022-2023

-Fifty funky fashion illustrations of my cat wearing my vintage collection.

-Over twenty 2D cardboard sculptures and illustrations inspired by road tripping thru the Southwest USA.

Illustrations (1985-present) are created by hand with economical or ordinary tools. The foundation is often recycled paper or cardboard. By forming my technical shortcomings into a unique style, and extending the themes of my childhood drawings, I have grown my artistic perspective over many decades. Inspiration often comes from my life experiences and memories, my immediate surroundings, nature, or my research interests. Whimsy and surreality are explored in equal measure with sinuous and straight edge lines cutting through negative space and blotches of color.

COLLECTIONS
Adventures in Tea Time kitty drawings and storytelling
Fun Fashion Illustrations
African American Heritage Drawings
Cardboard Illustrations of Materiality

EXHIBITIONS and OUTREACH
North Texas Library Hop Exhibition
From Black History Month to Kwanzaa 2015

Plano Public Library 18st AIR SPACE
Artist in Residence, Winter 2016-2017

Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum
Black History Month Guest Artist, February 2018

Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa
Artist in Residence, Spring 2019

PLACE MAT (2016-present) is a conceptual series where reclaimed clothing, natural fabrics, and found objects are the foundation for painting, embroidery, or hand-sewing. Many of the materials have touched my body in some way; from old clothes and bed sheets to jewelry. Studies on paper and recycled cardboard round out the collection using visual motifs and expressive marks. My process is slow and relaxed representing how I pass my time alone: recouping, regrouping, and otherwise expressing emotion.

PLACE refers to the self and the personal identity I hold from my present circumstances in suburban America which is often wasteful and messy. MAT refers to the foundation of my identity which includes my African American heritage. The cloth on the Kwanzaa table-top alter was my original inspiration.

Mats and cloths used in the Kwanzaa tradition are placed over a table to hold the items which build up the holiday altar. With this notion, my textile art has the potential for function and purpose beyond the aesthetic. A typical place mat is a cloth that marks a seat at the table and, in this vein, I am marking my place in the world via personal artistic expression.   

COLLECTIONS
Conceptual Kwanzaa Mats
Menstrual Blood Wall Hangings

EXHIBITIONS and OUTREACH
Tarrant County Community College Library, Fort Worth, TX
12 Freedoms Gained Juneteenth Exhibition June 2018
Second Place winner in Fiber Arts Category

Zosima Gallery, Arlington, TX
Vexillology Exhibition June-August 2018

Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX
Artist Workshop March 6th 2019

Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX
Artist Workshop March 24th 2019

REPURPOSED QUILTS (2018-Present) are made from recycled textiles, those that have touched my body or others that I know, forming conceptual self-portraits. Bedsheets and pillow cases, jeans and t-shirts, are collaged together and given a second life as an imperfect piece of textile artwork. From wall hangings to king sized quilts, pieces range from the conceptual to the functional. Detailed stitching and piecework are applied to simple square quilt patterns to create an artwork that looks and feels antique or ethereal.

COLLECTIONS
Quarantine Quilts and Wall Hangings
Found Cloth Assemblage
Personal Clothing Quilts

EXHIBITIONS and OUTREACH
Touchstone Center for Crafts, Farmington, PA
May 2021

American Carousel (2016-present) reinterprets the monotony of suburbia and its cluttered landscapes as a colorful wasteland. Illustrations of melancholy flags and telephone poles jut into the sky over bright blobs representing landfills and litter. Free magazines, junk mail, coupons, and grocery store circulars are the ephemera of suburbia and re-purposed into unlikely collages. Paint and glue are spread like icing over layers of images and drawings to form an unusual cake. The artwork is constantly changing with new doodles and collages added and edited over time. 

COLLECTIONS
2D Cardboard Sculptures
Line Drawings on Cardboard
Collage paintings and drawings

EXHIBITIONS and OUTREACH
Plano Public Library, Plano, TX
December 2016-January 2017

Courtyard Theater, Plano, TX
January-February 2017

Swirl Bakery, Flower Mound, TX
June-September 2017

Green Bean Cafe and Deli, Flower Mound, TX
October-December 2017

Thomas Maddrey LLC, Dallas, TX
March-April 2019

SNAPSHOTS (1999-present) are random images captured on disposable film, digital cameras, or phone cameras intended as reference photos for my artwork in other mediums. Many of the photographs have been printed as 8x10in glossy prints at local convenient stores and kept in a box for reference. The photographs document the mundane observations and experiences of suburbia. In the age of the selfie, it is rare to continually turn the lens downward or upward. The act of walking and looking has been documented, but over time that documentation has amounted to hundreds of snapshots. 

Image licenses for photographs available in the PF Shoppe.

PUBLICATIONS
Inspiration Time: Palettes, Textures, Lines, and Light to Spark the Imagination, 2020
A one-off publication of a selection of my snapshots combined with scrapbooking and illustration.

TABLE FOR ONE
Digital Exhibitions

Table for One references the phrase 'a seat at the table' which aims to break down barriers regarding gender and race inclusion in important decision making art circles. I have created my own table with this virtual curatorial series to showcase the experience of self-curation and document the act of art-making.

This self-determined, small-scale curatorial experiment began by displaying artwork on the horizontal plane to acknowledge the mode in which it was created; a table top or the floor. Often times, I was photographically documenting my artwork during the creative process and in so doing, documentation became a work of art in its own right. Table-scapes and tableaus are a legitimate style of curation and can be seen in many forms. However, Table for One has grown in scope and scale using the vertical plane, the outdoors, video, and audio.

EXHIBITIONS and OUTREACH
Online exhibitions on PF Broadcasting
2018-Present