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Maine College of Art & Design
2022 BFA Exhibition
May 20 - June 3
Info

Rachel Bower

Untitled (Deer Camp), 2021. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” Fishing Rod, Bag of Worms, 2021. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” Untitled (Cook Stove), 2021. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” Two-Stroke Smoke, 2021. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” When The Springtime Comes Again, 2022. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” Kitchen Corner, 2021. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” Sinking Into The Freshly Thawed Ground, 2022. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” Touching Dirt, 2021. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” At The End of This Road, 2022. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” Between The Gaps In The Slats of Barnwood, 2022. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” Across The Brook, 2021. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” Untitled (Prospectos), 2021. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20” Untitled (In A Bed of Pines), 2021. Archival Inkjet Print, walnut frame. 16x20”

At The End of The Road And Looking In All Directions (Laid On My Back I Could See The Sky)

At The End of The Road And Looking In All Directions (Laid On My Back I Could See The Sky) acts as an exploration into the ways in which people in rural areas seek freedom in solitude, both in a physical sense and a spiritual sense. In a time in which the constant flow of data and information define the era, it seems the closure of the eyes is impossible. The ‘here and now’ seems foreign. Using the Maine woods as my subject, these photographs examine ideas of freedom and self-reliance through images describing something between solitude and loneliness, documentary and myth. A subtle absence is suggested in the ways in which I treat objects and landscapes as portraiture, as if what is seen is not what is being looked for. I am drawn to those around me who live in the back of pick-up trucks and tar paper cabins. Those who spend their days in the river panning for gold and riding four wheelers to the gas station for a pack of cigarettes. Within these lifestyles emerges themes of transcendentalism, punctuated by ideas of birth, death, spiritual ecstasy, and a desire to disappear.

Bio

Rachel Bower is an artist from the coast of Maine working in the mediums of photography and bookmaking. Using rural life and the Maine woods as her subject, she explores a desire to disappear. Rachel received a Bachelors of Fine Art in Photography from Maine College of Art & Design. Her work has been shown by Aviary Gallery in Jamaica Plain, MA, Staycation Collective, and Topo Gallery in Camden, ME. She currently lives in Kennebec County, Maine where she can be found shooting tin cans off of fence posts and driving aimlessly in her Volvo station wagon.
Maine College of Art & Design
522 Congress St.Portland, ME 04101