About

Rachel Mulder (she/they, b. 1985) grew up in rural Wisconsin and when she was small she spent a lot of time sitting in the grass staring, obsessing over animals, watching cartoons and peeling her skin off. She relocated to Portland, Oregon, in 2009, and lives with her two cats, Opal and Tomasina. In 2011 she began working at ProjectGrow, an art studio, gallery, and urban farm supporting artists experiencing intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). The privilege of immersion in and celebration of the vast wisdoms/intelligences and creativity of people within the I/DD realm led her to uncover her own neurodivergence (AuDHD) later in life, at age thirty-seven. This self-discovery informs her visual work, and her ongoing supportive roles and collaborations with this community via Public Annex (RIP), North Pole Studio, and her ongoing work as a DSP continue to nurture and develop these connections.

She is a process-driven artist with a background in Printmaking (BFA, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design) who considers all of her work “drawing” regardless of the medium. Her archive zigzags between indulgence in obsessive technicality and unnecessarily rigorous processes to playful, intuitive and improvisational experimentation using a variety of materials and methods. Whether it’s drawing with human hair, a typewriter, cyanotype, gel pen or graphite, her imagery explores human dynamics, internal and interpersonal narratives, and the strangeness of being in a body, human or otherwise.

She is a teaching artist who offers workshops and classes for people all ages and abilities at North Pole Studio, Ulna Art Studio, and other locations in the Portland Metro area. Encouraging others (and herself) to create/exist fully is a parallel passion that braids itself into her visual work.