Future Alumna Spotlight: Rachel Fosler '22

Future alumna and current Lewis University art student Rachel '22 aspires to be an artist one day - with a focus on illustration or sculptures. Rachel has had the opportunity, through the art program here at Lewis, to use her creativity to embrace unorthodox ways of expressing emotion through art.

"One of the biggest things that influences my creativity is the materials that I work with, especially ordinary everyday objects. I'm constantly noticing qualities in objects; what kind of feeling is attached to the shape and how they could be repurposed for art, whether it be a head or a nose or a mouth. Another thing that influences my creativity is human emotion and how to portray it through inhuman objects. I like to draw out a viewer's emotions in unexpected ways through my sculptures and characters. I want people to see not only the bright and zany exterior, but also sense underneath that there's an emotional awareness the sculptures have that they can empathize with, something that's familiar and human."

Rachel is now a senior at Lewis and plans to go on to earn a master's degree after graduation, while continuing to make as much art as she can in her spare time. She hopes to eventually find a niche for her artwork, whether that exists in the realm of fine arts like gallery showings or becomes something more commercial like character design. She recently finished her first book illustration for "Sydney Seahorse Takes His Family To The Zoo", and hopes to illustrate more books in the future.

For Rachel, Lewis' art program, and everything it has to offer, has challenged her and shaped her into the inspiring artist she is today.

"When I first started, I expected to be given a lot of specific directions about what to do and how to do it. So the fact that the advanced classes are all about applying the skills we learned in previous classes to our own individually run semester project rather than being told what to do was really hard for me. But once I got a good rhythm going, having the freedom, time, and resources to do what I wanted to do with my art helped me progress my personal style and techniques more than I anticipated."

Rachel attributes much of her success to professors Mark Swain '93 and Leslie Colonna. They have always been very encouraging of Rachel's work and understand what she is trying to do, sometimes, better than she does. Their feedback has been very helpful in steering Rachel in the right direction throughout her journey. "My time at Lewis has meant a lot and I've had a lot of challenges that led me to become a better artist, as well as a more well-rounded person. I have learned a lot and had a lot of fun growing into the kind of artist I want to be and that's been a very rewarding experience."

Wherever life takes her, we are confident Rachel is destined to inspire others through her beautiful artwork.