LIMITED TIME ONLY: Rachel Nelson exhibit at the MCC-Longview Cultural Arts Center

In a limited two-week engagement, the MCC-Longview Cultural Arts Center is proud to exhibit the artwork of Rachel Nelson, who just completed her masters in Art Therapy.

Nelson began her journey when major life transitions triggered her passion for art. When she began repetitively drawing flowers to relieve the pain and anxiety caused by ulcerative colitis, the artist emerged.

After completing the AA at MCC-Longview and earning a degree in Psychology at MU, she made a synchronistic discovery—Avila University offered a master’s program in Art Therapy and Counseling. To qualify for the program, she returned to MCC-Longview to complete
 twelve credit hours of studio art.

Rachel’s art reflects her quest for healing. 

Through the act of repetition and use of media such as encaustic, acrylic, and mixed media Rachel achieves a sense of calmness, stability, and balance. Rachel becomes consumed with an idea, or by a medium, until she feels it has been fully expressed through her work. 

An early example is her “Owl Series” which was symbolic of her emergence as an artist who only worked by night for fear of being seen, hence she became a literal “night owl.” One owl in this series, Grandpa Owl, hung in the home and hospital room of her grandfather during his final weeks and days of life.

Rachel used art as self-therapy while completing an internship using art therapy with children and youth at Marillac. Her master’s project the “Encaustic Series” has come to symbolize her disease as she treads the path of healing, which unexpectedly took her to another place—that of acceptance. Rachel has exhibited her work at the Rime Center’s First Friday in Kansas City as well as the Ozark Technical College Gillioz Theatre Art Gallery in Springfield, Missouri.

She graduated from Avila University with a Master’s Degree in Counseling and Art Therapy on May 14, 2011. As a graduation celebration, an exhibit of her artwork entitled The Artist in Art Therapy is being held at MCC-Longview’s Cultural Arts Center Gallery.

Rachel Nelson

May 14-28

MCC-Longview Cultural Arts Center

Galley hours are Tuesday-Saturday, Noon-4 p.m.