Rachelle Austen (b.1976) makes intimate autobiographical sculptures with the intent to share with others her life-changing journey of new perspectives and how the empowerment of knowledge can elevate as the latin based nomenclature of her works suggest.

Rachelle’s work explores breaking beyond preconceived limitations and boundaries through her form-making under tension and compression, combined with the unpredictable outcomes of the solid forms through a slow vitrification firing. Her intention of inducing cracks and fissures into the delicately thin and robust solid forms pushes the material before and beyond breaking is the turning point of what the viewer may consider broken. This crossroad is a metaphor for the resilience and fragility of life and, most importantly, the beauty that may be found in imperfections.

Using repetition of weight and forms assists her in accentuating the opposing elements of light vs dark, solid vs fine, opaque vs transparent, difference vs similarities and cause vs effect, all to allow the viewer to take note of their own fragility and impermanence. The opposing elements offer tender visual representations of moments in time, often imbued with an ethereal glow, allowing the viewer to share in powerful experiences through a genuine authenticity of self-expression. Rachelle invites all to sit in the moment and reflect in the vulnerability of our fragility.