My name is Rachel Reagan, and I am a multi-media artist. I started my art career as a traditional artist, primarily in acrylic paint, oil pastels, and charcoal. During this time, I wanted to capture the world around me and explore the basics of color, form, and space. However, I explored animation and film to study these principles in a 3-D space as time progressed. Working more with sculptures, motion graphics, and stop motion to enhance this idea.

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          Most of my artwork is driven by human experience and how humans shape the world. Whether it is by human action or emotion, I want people to view life differently. There is much destruction in the world where you lose sight of what is important. You lose sight of the beauty of nature, the people and places around you, and your mind. The impressionist and abstract art movements from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have always inspired me. The way the artists from those movements invoke meaning and emotion from simple shapes and colors makes the viewer think. From the abstract interpretation of Helen Frankenthaler’s Mountains and Sea to the haunting tone of Vincent van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Crows, art can interpret different forms of meaning. Whether the artist intends it or not. Because of this, I wanted to see how it would translate to film and animation.

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          In the age of social media, such as TikTok and Instagram, animation and art can be used to create abstract expressions and ideas and let millions of people see them. A way to freely showcase your thoughts without the hassle of going through a studio or gallery to gain an audience. With this in mind, I want to see what I can push with my art in terms of ideas and how I make it—all with the intent of seeing how people will interpret the piece.