Rachel Grace Borntrager

Artist Statment

My work is inspired by the physiological and emotional complexity of human relationships. I create soak-stain acrylic and oil pastel abstract paintings that draw from memories held within my body, rooted in my lived experiences as both a child and an adult caregiver.

I approach the canvas much like a journal entry, ready to record a specific moment in time. Through a technique I call the Soma-Line Method™, I use awareness of my breath, heart rate, muscle tension, and nervous system sensations to guide the movement of line and color across the canvas, often unfolding from left to right. In my painting process, the body plays a central role in shaping what is painted, free from the constraints of analytical thinking or spoken language; instead, line and color become language for my body as I return to memories as a child (or what I call double-memories: moments experienced as an adult that take me back to moments of my childhood).

My work pulls from a rich history of abstract expressionism, mixing color-field soak-stain techniques and action painting, as well as elements of meditation and physiological awareness. My goal is to use art as a pathway toward wholeness, offering a way for myself and others to express and discover a wide range of felt experiences in their fullness. I hope my paintings serve as a gateway for viewers to understand abstract art as a visual language of the body and that through this language, I hope viewers can better recognize and accept shared human experiences, including those that often go unnoticed or unspoken but are deeply felt within our bodies.


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