Rachel Goldsmith is a New York and Seattle based artist who paints with PLA plastic on canvas. She received her Masters of Art and Design Education Degree from Pratt Institute in 2007 and her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Arts Degrees from The University of Michigan in 2003. Rachel taught middle school Visual Arts in New York City from 2007-2012. In addition to winning several “Best in Show” awards, in 2014 Rachel was commissioned by the inventors of the 3Doodler 3D printing pens to create a piece for MoMA Design Store. Since then she has committed to developing techniques to use this new medium as a language in her art. Her work, including her Fabergé Big Egg, is included in various private collections.

Artist Statement

Each piece I create is an abstract chapter of an old story – the universal struggle to control our environment while our environment controls us. The lines and movement I see in the world repeat in the obsessively detailed structures and emotions that I map onto the canvas.

My line of influence runs from the precise representations of Ernst Haeckel, through the perfectly imperfect geometric abstractions of Sol LeWitt and Agnes Martin, to the contours that emerge from Dale Chihuly’s physically dynamic and demanding creative process. My work pulls and extends that thread.

I paint with a 3D printing pen, extruding lines of colored plastic onto canvas. I devoted several years to developing the new language for this medium, allowing me to fully (and more powerfully) express the ideas and emotions I had spent a career communicating with paint and ink. The “struggle for control” metaphor becomes very real for me every time I rely on this new, imperfect technology as my translator. But it’s not about the pen.

I paint what I see. I blur the margin between two and three dimensions. I spontaneously abstract emotions with shapes, color and lines. I repeat. I repeat. My pieces do not have a master plan, as the work controls me as much as I control it. But that tension, and the tension my art represents, is a happy tension. I believe art should bring joy and pleasure, both emotionally and aesthetically.