Artist Biography

Linda Rae is an artist who works in photography, paint, drawing, collage, fibers, and sculpture.    Her work is inspired by her heartfelt connection to the Earth, its creatures, plants, and peoples and by her desire to know and to transform things holistically, which the creative process provides. 

Linda received a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art from Fort Hays State University in Kansas, and a Masters Degree in Art Therapy from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.  Linda worked for a number of years as an art therapist with children and adults, in hospital, residential treatment, correctional settings, and in private practice.  She also designed and implemented a site-specific program for a correctional facility.   Linda was board certified by the American Art Therapy Association.  Linda also has taught children and adult art classes in a wide variety of settings.   For the last several years Linda has devoted herself to studying how the creative process interacts with and effects consciousness.  Linda lives in rural northeast Kansas, with her husband, two horses, two dogs, and six cats.  She loves to hike, bike, ride horses,  cook, and garden when she is not in the studio creating, coaching creativity, or consulting.

    Artist Statement     

"I have never been without art.  It has always been a part of me, my way of relating to the world, expressing myself, and learning about everything around me.  I am most interested in the creative process itself.  By using movement, music,  various art media, and creative writing, the creative process allows me to experience any topic through the wholeness of my being, where I readily tap into the realm of pure potential, all possibility.  In this sort of direct experience I can receive chunks of information in one whole "aha" moment, about things I have never studied before in any other way.  This process also allows me to transform any situation in my experience, whether it be from a state of consciousness or a combination of being and doing.  Of course my art is also about the celebration of simply being alive.  I see such beauty, such tremendous beauty, in a leaf, a person's hair, the glint in their eye, the way a cat curls its tail around itself when it sleeps.  Some things, like flowers, are obviously beautiful to most everyone.  But to me, the whole world, and everything in it is a tremendous gift of beauty.  Photography allows me to capture a fleeting moment, a brief encounter with the "ordinary", that through my artist's eye has become extraordinary.   Sometimes this experience is literally gone with the blink of an eye.  Photography also teaches me to consciously choose what I focus on.  Drawing helps me to really see the world for exactly what it is, rather than what I think it to be.  It trains my mind to slow down and my eye to see true form and relationships, phenomenally.  Painting is an opportunity to be playful with color, texture, and design elements, to work spontaneously, intuitively, and to follow each painting's lead.  With collage I experience the microcosm and the macrocosm--playing with the pieces of a whole image that is itself a piece of another larger thing.  Sculpture is unparalleled in its ability to allow my consciousness to know about or to transform something because of the greater amount of information it requires me to create.  No matter what the media, my spontaneous creative process has allowed me to open parts of myself that I did not know existed.  It has also allowed me to experience the wholeness that a human being is designed to be.  By letting my art teach and lead me, I feel my greatest accomplishment has been earning my Ph. Me. "  

Ecards:   "I created The Art of Awareness Electronic Cards on my website in order to share my art work and insights with the world.  These cards are designed to be uplifting, heart-touching, thought-provoking, and unique.  We are beings of great wisdom, light, love, and joy at our very core.  In the sharing of who we really are, and connecting to others in a loving and uplifting way, we create a world full of limitless possibility.  I love sending these fun & uplifting cards out into the world, and I invite anyone else who would love to use the service to do so."
                                                              --Linda Rae

Exhibits

May 2008 Manhattan Art Center Photography Exhibit
Wamego Art Walk September 2008
Wamego Art Walk November 2008

Teaching

Beginning Drawing for Adults--Accessing the Right Side of the Brain, University for Mankind, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, Summer, 2008
Beginning Drawing for Youth--Accessing the Right Side of the Brain, University for Mankind, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, Summer, 2008