"I’ve always been working with my hands, imagining and building. As a kid, I couldn’t wait to get to the library to check out the National Geographic magazines, which even included the index book. My dad was a huge fan of nature shows, so as a Canadian child of the 80s, I have fond memories of Sunday nights, watching the Magical World of Disney followed by the Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. From some combination of these things, I was inspired to build a “blind” out of our lawn chairs in our Montreal backyard, so I could observe and document the natural behaviour of our local wildlife: the grey squirrel. I can’t tell you how many images I shot, with my Fisher Price camera, of a pixelated grey dot (the squirrel) through the gridded back of the lawn chairs (the white grid is visible in every photo). But my parents never discouraged me, especially my mom, who faithfully took the film to be developed.
I received my BFA in 2004 from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (NSCAD). When I moved back to Nova Scotia in 2009 after finishing graduate school at the University of Washington, I worked on a dairy farm. Caring for and tending to all those animals, the physically hard work, left me exhausted daily but satisfied. After two years, though, I was ready to return to making and I was invited to begin teaching at NSCAD University in Halifax. From my home studio, I have developed functional ware, while every so often fitting in the time to explore installation-based work.
In the meantime, it would seem I've become a bit of a small farmer. On my 6-acre piece of the world not far from Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, I keep honeybees, raise hens for eggs, turkeys and chickens for meat, and grow vegetables for my own use. I love gardening and every year add more beds and flowers to my ever-expanding perennial gardens. Amid the gardens, you’ll find my rescued animals: Abby, my big lovie Rottweiler mix, and the 3 cats–Bruiser, The Fuzz and Peeper–I found abandoned on a local road. In my world, creating and growing and playing is a never-ending project, and I love it." - Rachel De Condé
