Raine

I am a (formerly) itinerant photographer and artist who has put down roots in Huntington, WV.

I came to photography is a rather roundabout way. In 2000 I was living in Seattle and getting divorced. I was also preparing to move to Dallas to get a fresh start. My husband (a graphic designer) gave me a disk with Photoshop on it and said “You should play with this.” I didn’t even own a camera at the time.

So when I made the move to Dallas I bought a camera, a Photoshop book, and started shooting and editing photos. Those first few images are still some of my favorites. I mainly used my images in mixed media pieces – I sold work on Ebay and had some success with that. A whole lot of life happened between 2000 and 2006. I moved from Seattle to Dallas to New Orleans to Dayton, OH to Princeton, WV to Albuquerque. I went from being a career freight operations manager to being a graphic designer. And I became a mother. Art and photography, while private passions were not my focus for many years.

In 2006 I participated in a yearlong project with a group of local artists. We each created one piece a week for the entire year. We checked in with each other once a month. For my part I decided to give myself the additional challenge of working in one theme or medium each month. December of 2006 I decided to create 4 new photographic images – no mixed media – just the images themselves. And through that experience I decided to focus on photography. We had a gallery show displaying our work from the project in March 2007. And I bought my Rebel xti that same month.

Thoughts on Photography

My photography is not about documenting a moment – it is about conveying emotional experiences. I believe that is why I’m drawn to photo collage as it allows me to assemble and edit images to create a story. I love sitting at my computer and layering images on top of each other – until something leaps out of the screen at me – and I understand the story these images are trying to tell me. Also, looking over the images that I love and speak to me the most, I seem to hover on the darker side of life. I love things that simultaneously break my heart with their emotional context and lift me up with their unmistakable beauty. And when I see those things I point my camera and shoot.

Widening the Circle

My passion for art and photography has widened to become a call to expand the reach and scope of the arts in my community. I founded an artist-trading cards group in Albuquerque, NM in 2005 that is still going strong today. I also have participated in many community arts organizations and events as a vendor, teacher and organizer.

That call led me to be a founding owner of The Wooden Cow Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is a space that is devoted to furthering the Albuquerque arts scene and promoting New Mexico artists in all creative media. It opened its doors in September 2008 and was voted Best Gallery in Albuquerque the Magazine and The Weekly Alibi in 2009.

New Life

Now living in Huntington I am in the middling of a unraveling and reinventing. Art is no longer at the forefront, although it still feeds my soul in a way nothing else can. I am now a stay-at-home mom. I have renewed my love affair with food and currently cook entirely vegan. I also have become a Christian since moving and do a lot of work for my church, First Congregational United Church of Christ.

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