Our speaker for December is Rachael Ashe, a Vancouver-based visual artist who works in paper cutting, mixed media altered books, and photography.

As an emerging multidisciplinary artist, Rachael began her career as a graduate of the Creative Photography program at Humber College. For sixteen years she focused solely on film photography, as well as exploring alternative photo printing processes, and specializing in portraiture and toy cameras.

Over the past five years her artistic practice has evolved away from photography and on to paper-based work. She is self-taught in altered book sculpture, paper cutting, and paper engineering. Rachael has a self-directed artistic practice and is centred on process driven work. She believes in learning by doing and is constantly experimenting to push the boundaries of her abilities and potential as an artist.

Recent commissions include creating artwork for Vancity Credit Union, as well as a paper engineering project commissioned by Giant Ant studio of ten full-sized musical instruments for a music video shoot. She has also created paper-based public art installations for events such as Container Art Vancouver, Creative Mix, and the Illuminares Lantern Festival. Her mixed media yarn mural installations grace the walls of numerous private residences and office spaces in Vancouver and Seattle.

She participates in the creative community by taking part in events such as the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire, Got Craft, Word on the Street, and the Eastside Culture Crawl. Rachael is currently on the board of Maker Foundation, and is a volunteer with Creative Mornings. She also curates Hot Talks, a monthly speaker series at Hot Art Wet City gallery in Vancouver.

Rachael has exhibited in Toronto, Vancouver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, Florida and the UK, as well as been published in numerous books and magazines. Her work is held in private collections across Canada and the US. She works from a home studio in East Van.

CMV: How do you define creativity and apply it in your career?

MT: I define creativity as an innate ability all human beings have, it’s just some of us are more tapped into this ability than others. At its core concept, creativity involves keeping an open mind to possibilities. I apply this to my career by constantly experimenting and evolving the work I create as an artist.

CMV: Where do you find your best creative inspiration?

MT: I can find creative inspiration anywhere. Sometimes it comes from the materials I choose to make a piece of art, especially since I work through a spontaneous process. I often get inspired by plants, trees, leaves, and all sorts of natural objects I come across in my wanderings outside. I also get inspired by my interactions with other artists, by seeing their work, discussing each others ideas, or even sharing new materials or process.

CMV: What’s the one creative advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person?

MT: As a young person I wish I’d had more confidence in my natural abilities and wasn’t so quick to put limitations on myself. I spent many years thinking I could only be a photographer, and stopped cultivating my abilities to draw and paint in order to do so. It’s taken me a long time to come back around to the idea I can create art in any medium I choose to.

CMV: Who would you like to hear speak at CreativeMornings?

MT: I’d love to hear Marian Bantjes, Barbara Cole, and Kim Werker.

CMV: When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck?

MT: When I am stuck creatively I often step away from what I am working on and either go for a walk or meeting up with a friend and discuss the problem. Sometimes stepping away brings the solution to the problem, while other times it helps to talk things through with another person.

CMV: If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them?

MT: If I had fifteen extra minutes a day it’s a toss up between using them for napping, or reading.