During the first half of 2018, RMG moved from Chicago IL to Mexico City, Mexico. Having never lived abroad before, the experience was humbling and inspiring. This move provided an opportunity to study spanish, the local methods of folk healing as well as north american herbal medicine, energy healing, and to focus on daily creative practices.
These works were created while residing in Mexico City, and feature life in Mexico City as well as some travels to the countryside.
All works are available for show and sale.
8”x8”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquires.
8”x8”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
8”x10”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
8”x8”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
8”x8”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
8”x10”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
8”x8”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
12x9”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. Email for inquiries.
8”x10”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
8”x8”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
8”x10”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
12x9”, graphite on gesso’d panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
12”x9”, acrylic on panel, 2018, Mexico.
$200. email for inquiries.
Series: Field Notes
Explorations from the wood and field.
Featured in the August 2018 print issue of Loam Magazine.
RMG : Field Notes is an ongoing series of drawings on paper, prints, and handmade objects that began in late 2016. It is a slow and meditative project, consisting of only around 10 finished pieces as of today. The project is a study of found ecosystems in the woods and fields mostly around the Midwest, although now that I live in Mexico this will likely change. I am especially fascinated by mycelium colonies and tree allies/foes, which either improve and regenerate their surrounding ecosystem, or transform it into something completely different, such as a burl. The drawings are from life but they read as abstract.
I was inspired to start this series for a few reasons.
I was thinking and reading a lot about the ongoing political fight(s) against the natural landscape in the USA, which completely pains me as a gardener, backpacker, & folk herbalist who has a deep love for wild places. I decided to draw from what I found in the wood and field because it is such a joy to study abnormalities and organic patterns, to trace their forms and realize an entire world exists there that we walk past unnoticed every day. I felt like if more people stopped to look, more people might care. It’s as simple as that.
Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote in Braiding Sweetgrass, “Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”
This was the unexpected lesson. This is the part of the drawings that are not seen; I am no longer just observing, I can see now that I am not separate. The act of going to the woods to draw not only brought my attention to the otherwise unseen, it made me participate in the regeneration. I pick up old beer bottles and trash. I ask permission to pick berries and leave a gift in return. I reduced my plastic use.
The work is medicinal in that it has changed me for the better, too.
18"x24" graphite on paper 2016
$450, please email for inquiries.
18"x24" graphite on paper 2016
$450, please email for inquiries.
18"x24", graphite on paper, 2017
$450, please email for inquiries.
18"x24", graphite on paper, 2017
$450, please email for inquiries.
18"x24", graphite on paper, 2017
$450, please email for inquiries.
18"x24", graphite on paper, 2017
$450, please email for inquiries.
Drypoint print on paper, 2017
NFS.
drypoint on paper, 2017
NFS.
Series: Night Scene
A conversation after dark.
Available for sale and show. Works priced individually.
5"x7" x1", acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
13"x11" x"1, acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
8"x8" x1", acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
8"x8" x1", acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
12'x12" x"1, acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
6"x6"" x1", acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
6"x6" x1", acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
4"x4" x1", acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$150. please email for inquiries.
8"x8" x1", acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
6"x8" x1", acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
5"x7" x"1, acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$250. please email for inquiries.
6" tondo x1", acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$150. please email for inquiries.
6"x8" x1", acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
6"x6" x"1, acrylic on panel, 2016. Series: Night Scene.
$200. please email for inquiries.
9.5"x6" x2" (house-shaped), acrylic on wood, 2016.
SOLD: Private Collection.
17"x17" acrylic on panel, 2016. Made by request for Tim Lowly 's exhibit La Mer | La Mère (The Mother | The Sea), a Lowly exhibition with 20 participants / collaborators at St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN. (September 6 – 30, 2016) and at St. Mary’s University, Winona, MN (October 10 – November 12, 2016). See timlowly.com .
not for sale
RMG has a long history of almost daily sketchbook practice, starting in 2005. She had a show of her sketchbooks in Carlson Tower Gallery at North Park University circa 2008.
In addition to daily sketchbook practice, her creative process also involves photo taking with digital, polaroid and 35 mm cameras, keeping extensive diaries, life drawing, and zine writing.
This is a small selection of more recent entries.
Selected Work 2012-2015
please email to inquire about available works; include the title of the piece you are interested in.
5"x7", acrylic on panel, 2012.
5"x7", acrylic on wood, 2013.
12"x12", acrylic on wood, 2012.
10"x10", acrylic on wood, 2013.
12"x12", acrylic on wood, 2012.
12"x12", acrylic on wood, 2012/13.
2'x4', acrylic on wood, 2012.
4"x6" unframed, charcoal and chalk on paper, 2013.
8"x10", acrylic on panel, 2014.
12"x12", acrylic on panel, 2013.
16"x16", acrylic on wood, 2014
whereabouts unknown
3"x4", acrylic on wood, 2013.
5"x7" unframed, acrylic on paper, 2012.
5"x7", acrylic on panel, 2013.
5"x7", acrylic on panel, 2013.
10"x10", acrylic on wood, 2013.
10"x10", acrylic on wood, 2013.
4"x4", acrylic on panel, 2013.
acrylic on 3 dimensional piece of wood, 2015.
acrylic on 3 dimensional piece of wood, 2015.
oil on wood, 2015.
Selected Work 2009-2012
Post-undergraduate work on paper and wood.
please email to inquire about available works; include the title of the piece you are interested in.
6"x6", acrylic on panel, 2009.
16"x16", acrylic on wood, 2009.
16"x20", acrylic on panel, 2009.
14"x2-", mixed media on wood, 2009.
12"X20", mixed media on wood, 2009.
6'x3', mixed media on wooden door, 2009.
16"x20", mixed media on panel, 2009.
4"x4", acrylic on panel, 2009.
6"x6", acrylic on panel, 2010.
6" tondo, acrylic on wood, 2010.
8"x8", acrylic on panel, 2010.
6"x6", chalk and acrylic on panel, 2010.
4"x4", acrylic on panel, 2009.
10"x10", acrylic on panel, 2009.
2"x3", acrylic on wood, 2010.
4"x6" unframed, graphite on paper, 2009.
dimensions (?). acrylic on wood, 2010.
5"x7", chalk and gesso on board, 2011.
5" oval, acrylic on board, 2011.
10"x12", mixed media on board, 2009/11.
8"x10", ink and acrylic on wood, 2010.
6"x6", acrylic on panel, 2010.
5" tondo, acrylic on wood, 2010.
6"x6", acrylic and chalk on panel, 2009.
Drawn at a Buy Art Not People Panel Event. watercolor, ink and chalk on bristol.
Not available.
Drawn at a Buy Art Not People Panel Event. watercolor, ink and chalk on bristol.
Not available.
Drawn at a Buy Art Not People Panel Event. watercolor, ink and chalk on bristol.
Not available.
Drawn at a Buy Art Not People Panel Event. watercolor, ink and chalk on bristol.
Not available.
Drawn at a Buy Art Not People Panel Event. watercolor, ink and chalk on bristol.
Not available.
Drawn at a Buy Art Not People Panel Event. watercolor, ink and chalk on bristol.
Not available.
8"x8" unframed, ink and chalk on paper, 2011.
8"x8" unframed, graphite and ink on paper, 2011.
4"x6", acrylic on wood, 2010/12.
8"x8", acrylic on panel, 2010/11.
4"x4", acrylic on panel, 2009.
8"x12" unframed, acrylic on paper, 2011/12.
4"x4", acrylic on panel, 2010.
5"x7" unframed, ink on paper, 2011.
5"x7" unframed, graphite on paper, 2011.
6" tondo, acrylic on wood, 2010.
16"x20", x2, acrylic on wood, 2009. Collection of the Artist.
8"x11" unframed, acrylic and ink on paper, 2009.
8"x11" unframed, acrylic and ink on paper, 2009.
11" oval, acrylic on paper, framed. 2010.
4"x4", acrylic on panel, 2010.
4"x4", acrylic on panel, 2009.
8"x10" oval, acrylic on panel, 2011/12.
Various post-undergraduate mixed media works.
None available for sale
A collaboration with Tim Lowly
please contact Tim Lowly to inquire about the works.
TL: This was a collaborative project that focused on objects from the life of my daughter Temma . In the last few months of 2013 Chicago artist Rachael (McHan) Gonzalez worked as one of Temma's care-givers. While we has been friends for quite a while and she has been acquainted with Temma, her experience as one of Temma's caregivers informed her understanding of Temma and the role of these objects in Temma's life.
The procedure for this work was as follows:
1) We chose objects that are part of Temma's daily world.
2) Rachael started the piece, working either from the actual object or a photograph that she has taken of it. She worked on the piece until she was ready to pass it on.
3) I worked on the piece (from the original object, Rachael's photograph or my imagination) until it was finished.
These works were first shown in Feb 2014 at Koplin Del rio Gallery in L.A.
Projects: BENT GRASS
none available for sale
BENT GRASS was a tentatively titled transcription project, which was a collaboration between RM and Alexander Frieske. Frieske had a collection of recordings of his grandfather telling stories from his young adulthood growing up in the south during the depression. Stories about travel, adventure, and encounters that rang of Tom Sawyer, or Mockingbird.
Frieske would transcribe the stories painstakingly using the audio footage, while RM would illustrate each story, often utilizing field notes, research and interviews with family members or historical society representatives.
The resulting artist' book was not published for sale and is owned by A. Frieske.
Work in magazines, zines, publications and books
Book Illustrations. Sci Fi Author; Cweth Michel. Canada.
