We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachel Coyne a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I just received an MN State Arts Board Grant to bring to life a larger scale project. This financial support was just a lift. The project is called “Missing & Disappeared.” This new body of work centers around the crisis of missing and disappeared women in the United States. The show will appear at 5 galleries around MN. The 20 pieces are of panels of resin in which I have suspended a collage of paper materials from vintage clothing patterns. When a strong light is shone through the panels, multiple female silhouettes come into view, emerging from the shadows.

There around 13,000 unidentified decedents in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and all too many of them are women who went missing or were disappeared. Often, when unidentified remains are found, decomposition prevents a clear identification. Unidentified decedents are usually described by the clothes they are wearing, and sometimes named after them. For example, a Sarasota County “Jane Doe” is described as “wearing a multi-colored cotton pullover shirt with an Italian label, a light colored “Spice Wear” skirt with a leather string belt and turquoise socks.”
Since many of the unidentified decedents are from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, the vintage pattern envelopes used in my work are contemporary to their lives.

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

Most of my artistic working life, I have been writer. I sold my first book, a children’s picture book, to a large publisher at age 18. I wrote a few novels. But I reached a point where I needed to go back to painting. With books, there are so many other people involved – agents, editors, marketing people. When I went back to painting, I went back to only making what I enjoyed making. Its a relief to have the balance of both in my life.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me its meeting people and expanding my circle. Art brings the coolest people into your life. Some are coworkers, some become friends, so are just faces in the community – but its a wonderful community. It keeps me engaged and creating.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Non-creatives often go right to the bottom line when they first meet you. They would never dream of walking up to their cousin’s lawyer friend and saying “so do you make any money doing law?” But they love to ask artists the most personal questions almost instantly after an introduction. The truth is money is different when you’re an artist. Often being an artist involves lots of different jobs inside and outside of the arts. I don’t hide that. I’m proud of that. I often tell inquiring minds – I do art to meet people to have a better life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: imrachelcoyne
• Twitter: imrachelcoyne