We recently connected with Rachel Alber and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rachel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I have had the honor of being asked to create many different and meaningful projects for art lovers over the years. Some of those projects include wedding rings for two sweet gay couples, made from forged stainless steel pipe, a painting of an African slave ship that depicted tremendous struggle and resilience, a public art sculpture that hopes to inspire connections within community and with all of life, and an interactive sculpture for an individual who is disabled. This last one was a really fun project. The project was to create an art piece using the client’s wisdom teeth they just had taken out. This person had a big connection to their teeth and wanted an art piece to honor them. So I set the teeth into clear resin and attached springs to the backs of them and then set them into a small box with a door. When the door is opened the teeth spring out. I also incorporated some of the client’s art work into the wall sculpture. I wanted to make it as personal as I could for this art client.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an artist and a Licensed Psychotherapist. I have been an artist all of my life. I enjoy working with different mediums in my artwork that include steel, bronze, copper, concrete, acrylic and oil paint, resin, video, and photography. I became a metal fabricator while living in Seattle, WA. and learned the art of metal fabrication from other fabricators living in Seattle. In my work I think about connections, patterns, chaos, and stability often in both my art and Psychotherapy careers. While creating an art piece I explore these themes. I work in diverse mediums to help me to gain a deeper understanding of how these themes develop and affect the integrity of the structure. I think of It as a kind of social experiment through an inanimate object. Working with my clients as a psychotherapist I will consider the individual at all levels of their life using the lens of micro, meso and macro. In my artwork I also bring my focus through these same levels to give a multi-dimensional perspective for the viewer. These levels have emotion, chaos, instability, structure and stability.

In my work as both artist and psychotherapist I hope to support others to connect with what is inspiring to them as an individual. Inspiration is abstract and comes in many forms and colors. When we are inspired we experience what it is to really be alive.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Hmm, a story of my resilience…..well while living in Seattle working hard and struggling to make a living from my art I experienced homelessness for a week. I slept in my car on Capitol Hill. It was scary, I didn’t mentally feel I could trust or count on anyone at that time in my life. But I did find some support and pulled myself back into getting enough money to get my own place. Coming from that really unstable place to going to college for the first time, first in my family, at age 38 getting my BA in Psychology and Master’s in social work and becoming licensed and making my dream come true of becoming a Psychotherapist. There were many times I thought nothing would change for me, but then there were times of clarity and hope that drove me forward on my journey. Looking back I can say I am grateful for all of it, the hard and the good times. It was all important.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think as an American or a North American society we need to recognize the fragile importance of culture. We need to honor and value creativity. Acknowledge all creative work as a kind of preservation of the human story. In this Capitalist society we have allowed, Fiat wealth is most valued, and culture becomes a threat because it wakes us from the hypnotic learn capitalist behaviors. When a society loses art it is easy to enslave the people and the environment.

Contact Info:

• Website: industrialgem.com