Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rachel Dawn Kling. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Rachel Dawn, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The entire experience of choosing to work as a creative in today’s unpredictable economy is a giant risk. However, one of the biggest risks I took in my career was also the door for me to be where I am today; which was leaving my salaried position as a visual merchandising manager in the corporate world and going freelance. In 2015, I landed a job as a graphic artist at Market District, a specialty health food store where products are elaborately merchandised and highlighted to guests with hand-painted signage created from within the stores in live studios. There are multiple stores throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana and the location I worked at was in downtown Pittsburgh. I quickly moved to the Visual Merchandising management position where I built the displays and directed a team of artists to execute a vision for each staged set of products. The beautiful thing about this job was each artist employed was encouraged to create signage in the way in which they uniquely worked stylistically, so no two stores were the same or streamlined. There were high-paced deadlines and a multitude of work coming in depending on what the warehouses were shipping in, which pushed me and curated my development personally as an artist; allowing me to discover my abilities to a greater extent. During this time and since I achieved my undergraduate, I was also actively doing freelance commission work and exhibiting my personal paintings in galleries throughout the region. My work at Market district came as far as to be featured on the front page of The Pittsburgh City Paper, where what I did there and who I was as an artist was discussed throughout a whole spread. However, for years I longed for the freedom of my work to not be contained in the marketing world and to have complete control in what I was producing, as I am truly a Fine Artist. Though I had projects in my freelance coming in here and there, it was not enough to sustain me financially, but I believed if I had the time and space to build my business I could create a new path of my own and succeed. In the tumultuous year of 2020, I took that leap of faith and left Market District to pursue my dream. Since then, I have worked tirelessly to expand my network and have executed hundreds of commissioned pieces. I have been honored, awarded, and have sold work in exhibitions, deveoloped a way to print my original work on home decor and products where I feature at live events, created an online store where people can purchase my original work and printed products, and have made connections with organizations like PNC Park in Pittsburgh where I am hired to paint gifts to honor world-renowned musicians that hold concerts there such as Guns N’ Roses and Morgan Wallen. Though it has taken years of hard work, countless hours of discovering what works and what does not in this field, and struggling to get to a point of a steady flow of projects, I have come to the point now where I have truly developed my own business and dream from the ground up. The risks I have taken to get here, though high, make the achievement of this all the more profound to me and I never take one opportunity for granted.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a thirty-five year old woman happily married and freshly a mother living in a small town in Western Pennsylvania. Ever since I was five I have been fascinated with visual art. I was homeschooled up until high school, so before public education I had a unique freedom to explore painting and drawing, in a way that was more self-driven in its development. In high school I was very active within the art departments offered there, and the programs available were truly exceptional. For the first time, I was able to explore a large range of mediums such as printmaking, charcoal, pastels, acrylic paint, oil paint, metal work, ceramics, and sculpture. I participated in the school art club and was the treasurer, working to build finances for field trips to visit important cultural art districts and cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia. I was even honored at the community and state level during this early time for work I created and entered into exhibitions. From there I received opportunities and scholarships to continue my education at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, known today as Pennsylvania Western University. I originally began my concentration in traditional animation, where I was advised by a professor who had worked on the set of Disney movies such as The Little Mermaid. I chose this path to intertwine my passion as a traditional artist with a field I felt would truly offer me a possible career path. Edinboro has an incredible and highly successful animation department that is well known for the success of their alumni. I was deeply involved with the animation club, where we traveled to places like Ottawa, Canada to take part in their international animation film festivals that educated those in attendance on the cutting edge of the field. This was also the innovative time computer animation was beginning to take a hold of the entire Industry, something that did not speak to me personally. By my second year in this department, I found myself at a place where I had to be very honest with myself about what direction I truly wanted to take. I did not enjoy the process of animation, and was seeing very clearly the writing on the wall that the future of animation was not going to be executed hand. I had no interest in working over a light board, let alone a computer for hours on end. I found myself far more drawn to my introductory painting and drawing classes, which every artist in every field was required to take; something very special that Edinboro University placed as important in their art program. I will never forget the meeting I had with a few of my fine art professors where I expressed wanting to change majors, yet I was very concerned about ever finding an actual job. I had one professor tell me it was not about the vocation, but what was in my heart, that I very likely would have to wait a lot of tables and hustle for a great portion of my life, but with the outstanding passion and aptitude I had for painting and my work ethic, there was nothing that could stop me from breaking through and finding where that would fit in the world. I also could visualize during this time, the year 2008, that the future was not just going to be digital and that an oversaturation of it would eventually have people searching for physical artwork to connect to and would speak to their innate physical senses. I realized and accepted that the traditional approach is the kind of person and artist I am called to be. From there I decided to change my concentrations to painting and drawing, with a minor in art history and I graduated with that in 2011. Though I was called by many of my professors and peers to pursue graduate school, I did not find that desire in me, as the purpose of that path is mostly to have the ability to teach in universities. I knew I always wanted to be the artist, not the instructor; my passion just did not lie there. I was also very ready to leave the school setting and get my feet wet out in the working world and continue to develop my craft in an outside environment. And just like my one professor had predicted years prior, I waited a lot of tables, but I also took that time to connect with people to develop my networking skills. I would put myself out there for freelance work and was building that foundation almost immeadiately after graduating. At the time I worked and lived in the small city of Titusville Pennsylvania, and continued waitressing and doing custom paintings for people for two years until I decided to move to the developing city of Pittsburgh in 2013. From there, I worked my way into the local art scene and continued to discover new clients for commission work. I placed my time working in small galleries, helped open up and manage a franchise of a nationally established paint and sip studio called Painting with A Twist, and, as stated before, I eventually found myself working as a visual merchandising manager at a specialty food store called Market District which wpuld all lead to me taking the dive into going full-time into my freelance career. Specifically, I paint and exhibit orginal pieces in galleries and exhibitions, create custom pieces for clients, offer high-end printed products and home decor through my online store, and participate in live events and markets where I feature a conglomeration of what I offer to potential new audiences. I use social media in a big way to advertise what I do and communicate with people on my latest news. When I look back at where I came from, I can clearly see that every job and experience I have gone through, positive and negative, has made it possible for me to successfully get to the place I am today. My life and personhood speaks through my work boldly, where my paintings are highly identifiable to people. Instead of proud, I would like to use the word humbled in expressing how I feel about being approached by and working with so many different individuals and organizations to execute their vision in the way in which I paint. I have always wanted to be a painter of the people, as it has always been so important for me to be able to connect personally with each and every person I work with to truly go beyond the white walls of the gallery and create a physical window that projects their heart.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Though this career choice not only as an artist, but also as a small business owner, has come with many challenges along the way and continues to pose great hurdles, there is so much reward surrounding what I do. It is not just a job, but a fulfilling lifestyle. In order to successfuly grow, there is a constant innovation and exploration into how I can reach new followers, projects, and job venues. In this line of work, no two projects are the same, so there really is no comfort zone and everything is dependent on my output. The very nature of what I do asks me to put my absolute best efforts into making the best product everytime, because it is so personal to the client and so crucial to excite more to inquire. This dynamic continues to prove to myself the capabilities of my own determination and resilience, even when there are failures I have to confront, which are inevitable in life and honestly the best way to learn. The greatest reward is the overall freedom. The freedom of expression, of connection, and how I can pioneer my business. And though I may work more than I did today than in past corporate settings to reach my necessary goals, I am so happy and excited for the direction I am going.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My personal mission as a fine artist in this day and age is to touch people in an honest way. It is no secret that people today are more isolated in their lifestyles, yet simultaneously caught in demanding and busy routines; spending many hours of their day existing through the window of a digital screen. Even if my artwork can only be seen for many through that screen, I work to transmit a form of therapy that brings joy and refreshing to the viewer. The characteristic vibrancy of my color palette and the specific approach to achieve movement in my visuals strives to emit hope, reignite wonder in our surroundings, and highlight the beauty of the world that is often taken for granted or overlooked. I wish for the viewer to be spiritually centered by what the image is offering and taken by a pure moment of quiet simplicity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.racheldawnart.com
• Instagram: @raedawnart
• Facebook: The Art Of Rachel Dawn Kling
• Other: Telgram: The Art Of Rachel Dawn

Image Credits
Racel Kling Jared Wickerman Julie Kahlbauh-Emmel Pittsburgh City Paper Ryan Hertrich