(Vanessa) Rae Brocato

I make art to focus on what I find beautiful, strange, and inspiring. Some of my inspirations include dream narratives, slow food cookery, queer icons, tarot art, storybook illustrations, the life in my gardens, and mythologies and lore from around the world.I practice watercolor painting, marker (especially Sharpie marker) drawing, and block printing, as well as growing, gathering, and applying botanical dyes. Each practice has its purpose and season, and they cross-pollinate each other beautifully.

 

I offer opportunities for art lovers to acquire art, inspire art, and make art. Up-coming and recent shows and publications listed below. I pop-up at markets here and there. Please sign up below for my seasonal newsletter for on-going information.​

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If you want to make some art of deep meaning and no consequence together then please join us on-line for my monthly event - Luck of the Draw: new moon tarot card drawing. Free, donations welcome, and you can register on Eventbrite for December. ​

 

My undergraduate education was first in studio art and education then in women’s studies with a focus on literature and history. I studied art and art history for a semester in Florence, Italy. I went on to earn a juris doctorate with a focus in international human rights, and practiced advocacy, movement building, and facilitation for more than a decade.​

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My places of influence include Chicago, Illinois; Italy –  specifically Florence and Sicily; New York – Brooklyn and up-state; Washington, DC, where I earned my law degree and worked for non-profits; and New Orleans, Louisiana, where my ancestors once lived and ran a gelato shop. I now live in the woods of southwest Michigan, not far from the lake, where the light is like a Maxfield Parish painting even if I don’t paint that way.Thank you for visiting my on-line art space. Art lovers with inquires, as well as event organizers or reporters looking for a third person bio, please send an email: vanessarae1213@gmail.com.