OM.2024.104 - Rosemary Rae - USA

OM.2024.104 - Rosemary Rae - USA - Mystic Hour - collage on panel- 8 x 8 inches - Visual Poetry and Color

 Rosemary Rae is a San Diego, California-based creative director, graphic designer, book artist, and educator. Known for her vibrant, process-driven approach to tactile media, her practice bridges the rigid boundaries of commercial design with experimental, haptic fine art forms like collages, assemblages, and unique handmade artist books. [1, 2, 3]

Artistic Mediums & Philosophy

• Collage & Assemblage: Working in what she describes as a rebellion against digital structure, Rae curates her physical collages using found objects and vintage ephemera. Her compositions frequently integrate vintage labels, cardboard packaging, envelopes, and old magazines to explore the kinetic relationships between color and physical space. [1, 2, 3]
• Typography as Art: Drawing from her professional background, typography is a central pillar of her artistic practice. She infuses her experimental fine art with vintage wood and metal letterpress type, exploring letterforms as pure visual elements alongside stamped text and poetry. [1, 2, 3]
• Artist Books & Pop-Ups: Rae frequently builds tactile book structures, specializing in tunnel books, painted accordion books, and intricate pop-up constructions designed to offer an immersive, interactive experience. [1]
• Daily Creative Rituals: Maintaining a prolific studio practice, she treats art-making as a daily meditative ritual, creating over 200 distinct journal planner collages by utilizing paper scraps, crayons, and acrylic paint to embrace spontaneous play. [1]

Professional Design & Instruction

• Rosemary Rae Design: As a freelance creative director and publishing professional, Rae designs book covers, calendars, commercial retail kits, and corporate branding materials sold nationwide. She also produces her own unique, independent line of letterpress greeting cards. [1, 2, 3]
• Design Education: She actively shares her passion for print and typography as a faculty member and design educator, teaching advanced typography and specialty book arts workshops for organizations like San Diego Book Arts. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Education & Exhibitions

Rae holds a BFA from the Moore College of Art + Design in Philadelphia, an MFA in Graphic Design from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and has completed advanced typographic training at the School of Visual Arts in both New York City and Rome. [1]

Her multi-disciplinary book arts and assemblages are regularly featured in competitive juried exhibitions. Notable presentations include a showcase of her experimental board books for the Necessary Departure exhibition at the San Diego International Airport, and her solo collage feature, Reconsidered, at the Escondido Art Gallery. For deeper visual context, her portfolios can be browsed through the Center for Book Arts directory. [1, 3, 4]

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