Bio
Rachael Grad is a Toronto artist, mom of three, and former lawyer who has studied and worked in the US, France, Italy, and Hong Kong. She left practicing law to study painting full-time at the New York Studio School and New York University before transferring to OCAD University. Grad graduated OCAD as the Governor General Academic Medal and Mrs. W.O. Forsyth Award Winner. Trained to paint and draw from life, Grad’s current art practice incorporates digital painting and collage along with her observational drawing and painting. Currently in the MFA (Visual Arts) program at York University, Grad was awarded a SSHRC, CGS Master’s Scholarship and a Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
Grad combines her experience as a mother, former lawyer, and traveler into her artwork and curatorial projects. Creating work based on parenting moments, current series include “After the Plague” abstract expressionist paintings, “Motherhood Hit Me Like a Train” works on paper that use trains as paintbrushes, and “Mommy Mayhem” digital collages and paintings. Recent exhibitions include Baycrest, Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, and Gallery 1313. She has been featured in MER Literary Journal, MILK Art Journal, Verklempt! Magazine, Niv Magazine, the Toronto Sun, the Washington City Paper, and the Washington Post.
RachaelGradArt.com @RachaelGradArt
Abstract
I am a Toronto-based visual artist and mother of three, writing about how the mayhem of motherhood significantly changed my artmaking. As a studio-based visual artist, I explore in this text how I witness, document, and engage in play to fuel my creative practice. Drawing from life, employing my children’s toys as paint brushes to make marks in ink and paint, in addition to other art experiments, are ways to explore through production. To seek additional inspiration and strategies, I regularly research how artist mothers and caregivers find time to create. My daily scribbles and scrawls, along with historical artworks, provide a starting place for my creative practice. Slowly but steadily, I make headway in accumulating marks, notes, and ideas, building up and forming a knowledge mass that I access when working in my art studio. Learning from my children and the stolen minutes of artmaking between caregiving, I bring play, silliness, and experimentation into my studio art practice. With my children’s daily influence, I incorporate humor, whimsy, and color into my painting and drawing. Thus, I conceive tactics that allow me to make art amidst my hectic home life. The accumulation of small work moments has led to bodies of artwork, including my daily drawings, “Mommy Mayhem” and “Motherhood Hit Me Like a Train” painting series. In conclusion, I realize, although I miss gallery openings, lectures, and travel, I have progressed in my work.
Scrawls and Scribbles: A Mother’s Methods for Practice-Based Research
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