Inside the Studio: Rachel Goldsmith

Contemporary artist Rachel Goldsmith works out of New York and Seattle. Rachel paints and draws in the traditional sense, but the most unique thing about her practice is her use of the 3D printing pen. Rachel uses PLA plastic on canvas as well as other objects she finds like rocks and vines, to create her unique paintings. In addition to plastic, she uses acrylic paint, watercolor, alcohol ink and pen ink to create her pieces.

In 2007, she was awarded her Master of Art and Design Education from Pratt Institute of Art in New York. After that she began teaching art and taught for 5 years as a middle school visual arts teacher. After experimenting with PLA plastic, Rachel was commissioned by the inventors of the 3Doodler 3D printing pens to create a piece for the MoMA design store.

Here she is creating her very first piece ever using the 3Doodler 3D printing pen!

Since then, she has become an expert in working with this medium. Rachel is constantly experimenting with new uses of the printing pen and PLA plastic. Rachel’s custom art paintings are in private collections across the country.

Her latest installation piece, Love Grows Here, is a 25-foot tree. The tree limbs were created from an invasive vine species. The leaf forms are created from lines of bioplastic traced with the 3Doodler 3D printing pen. Rachel irons these lines and weaves brass and aluminum wires through it. Finally, she adds highlights of bronze acrylic to some of the vines.

Also, Rachel’s works have been exhibited at Art Fairs. Last year, from November 30th to December 4th, 2022, Goldsmith’s work was featured at Art Aqua Miami in Alessandro Berni Gallery’s booths. She even brought her 3Doodler 3D printing pen and created a piece live!

You can purchase original artwork by Rachel on her website. Follow Rachel on Instagram @artistrachelg and read on for my interview with Rachel.

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?

I have always been an artist.

How would you describe your paintings and the process of creating them with PLA plastic?

Growing, evolving, entwined, layered, exquisite, intentional, additive, subtractive, slow, imperfect, repetitive, meditative.

What was the first creation you made once you started working with the 3D pen?

Painting with Plastic, PLA and ABS on a 40 x 40 primed canvas…I used all of the plastic I first received in one sitting.

What do you hope to communicate with your pieces?

I create artwork in service of adding joy or peace or love or inspiration to other people’s lives… What I am doing is exciting and amazing and my work is both imbued with those emotions and simultaneously has an unavoidable allure to look closer, to see more, to find beauty and bask in it, this work is made for people to enjoy. That is what motivates me to sell it, money would be nice too, but really, the larger value is in the peace and joy and delight and magic that the art brings to those who live with it.

What do I want each piece to communicate… an invitation to look more closely…. To encourage being inquisitive and imaginative and flexible. Work should be admired in multiple orientations.

Can you describe your studio space, or the space where you create art most often?

My studio space, wherever I am creating today, is filled with collections of sticks and shells and rocks and vines, and strands of plastic, piles of drawings, partially completed pieces both on and off canvases. Acrylic paints, watercolors, alcohol inks, PLA and pens all organized by color…brushes and other tools everywhere… And in the best of times, it is outdoors.

What do you do when you have some free time?

Does anyone have free time?

Maybe all of my time is free time? I hoop, burn wood, go vining; cut down invasive vines, soak or swim, dance, sing, sleep, stretch, eat, create, and run my business… that’s every day.

What are the sources of inspiration for your paintings?

My pieces echo nature's intricacies, and usually reflect my environment, city, beach, island, lake, mountains, or suburbs.

Do you have a favorite 3D painting you have created?

Every time I start to write a title, I think of a different one. I guess I have a lot of favorites.