Program: Sculpture / Installation Art / Mixed Media
Discipline: AZ Creative Aging Teaching Artist Institute

City/Town: Queen Creek
Year: 2017-18
Artist Website: http://rachelsaeger.com/home.html

Artist Biography

Rachel began engaging with seniors during her early years completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin Stout. Rachel grew up in Milwaukee and attended college in a small town in northern Wisconsin. In search of a job without means of transportation, Rachel began working as a caregiver at the memory care facility two blocks from her home. She spent the rest of her college days studying, researching, and witnessing first hand the affects of dementia and the overall mental deterioration of our aging human minds. While simultaneously studying as an installation artist, Rachel began applying these concepts to her artistic practice, and this ultimately became the foundation of her solo senior thesis exhibition. Her work refers to ideas of selective or distorted memories and anecdotes through the progression of time.

After working several years in memory care and having received her Bachelor’s of Fine Art in 2014, Rachel then worked as an activity coordinator in assisted living where she regularly planned and executed activities with residents. Although she favored arts and crafts, Rachel led numerous activities including daily exercise routines, singing and music, card games and bingo, baking and cookouts, spiritual gatherings, and a variety of other organized activities. She has also had the opportunity to work for a small interior design company called The Simple Home, which works directly with senior living communities to implement “life-skill” stations or activity stations for residents with memory loss. Since moving to Arizona last year, Rachel’s current work has been providing senior clients with in-home care needs in the east valley of Phoenix, in addition to working at the City of Tempe Edna Vihel Center for the Arts providing art recreation classes to the public. With any remaining hours in the day, Rachel can be found in her home studio creating handmade, fiber art pieces for her small business called Sun Locked Fibers.