If by now you don't know who Rachel Dolezal is, and what her immense deception was, then you just got on the Internets for the first time ever a few minutes ago and came to this website on your first click ever.
In summary, Rachel Dolezal is a white female artist and professor, whom for the last few years has deceived people into believing that she was African-American, or as she prefers to be called: black.
She's not, her parents and adopted brothers (who are black) have "outed" her, and by now pretty much the entire planet knows this. There are many hypothesis already submitted to make your head spin as to why this person did this, and although this charade leaves a distasteful taste in my mind, I'm trying really hard not to judge this lady for this action. The Twitter world is also having a lot of fun with her, and there are a lot of funny memes floating around as well. That's a photo of her as a young girl in Montana.
She has plenty of other detractors which are also vectors into forming an opinion about Dolezal, and one thing emerges clear: she can fabricate a tall tale.
In an interview with The Easterner, the newspaper for Eastern Washington University, Dolezal said that she was born in a “Montana teepee.” She added that her family “hunted their food with bows and arrows.”
She has also said that as a child, she and her parents lived in Colorado and South Africa. Her parents say all of that is false and that Dolezal never lived in either place.
She has stated that while living in South Africa (which she never did) with her parents, they beat her with a baboon whip, whatever that is; punishing her and her siblings by "skin complexion."
As BuzzFeed reports, according to her father, her “oldest son Izaiah,” is actually her adopted brother; her parents have adopted four black children.
In another issue of The Easterner, Dolezal reportedly told a reporter that the man who raised her with her mother is her stepfather. Her parents have denied that.
In January, a photo of Dolezal and a black man appeared on the Spokane NAACP's Facebook page, and the man was identified as Dolezal's father. A similar photo then appeared in her personal Facebook account where she identified the man as her "Dad." Subsequently the man has been identified as Albert Wilkerson - a black man from North Idaho who had volunteered at the Human Rights Education Institute in the past when Dolezal was in charge of that organization's educational programs.
In one of her classes, she allegedly asked for a Hispanic student to volunteer for class questions. When a white Hispanic student raised her hand, Dolezal allegedly told the student that she "didn't look Hispanic" and asked for another volunteer. That takes "cojones!"
She has a local DMV connection: She went to Howard University for her Master’s Degree in Fine Arts, where she also taught undergraduate art students, and was around the DMV until around 2005. As as far as I can figure out, the switch to "black" happened around the time that she headed out West, and then, according to Buzzfeed, she reportedly told her adoptive brother (who is black) not to “blow her cover”, as that's where apparently she started "passing as black."
In the The Eastener interview we learn that:
Dolezal is thus a trained, apparently widely exhibited artist, and is/was an Art Instructor at North Idaho College, and an Adjunct
Professor of African American Culture at Eastern Washington University, . You can see her artwork here.
Let me be the first one to say that I have no knowledge of any "art circuit" where artists or galleries sell artwork in convention centers, unless Dolezal is talking about art fairs. But let's not dwell on that too long, maybe there is an art circuit, outside of my radar (rather unlikely) and NOT art fairs, where artists sell their work in "convention centers." But even art fairs where in their infancy stage in 1999!
But let's believe her for a minute, and this is getting harder by the second the more we learn about this person. If Rachel Dolezal, as a student at Howard, was selling artwork for as high as $10,000 in 1999, she was not only the top priced student at Howard ever, but also the top priced student in the DMV ever, and at the very top of the artist food chain in the DMV, right along with Sam Gilliam in 1999.
But I had never heard of her until her deceit was exposed a few days ago... in the last few years I've mentored two art students from Howard, and I suspect that they've never heard of her either... someone popping paintings for up to $10K in 1999 in DC would have been a legend in her school, around the art crowd in the DMV, and in the radar of every art dealer in the city.
And thus, I don't believe Dolezal on this giant art lie either.
Another thing bugs me; there's an impressive level of technical skill in this 2011 Dolezal painting in the way that the paint is handled, the treatment of the light and the wood surfaces... (Update: see http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/rachel-dolezal-totally-busted-as-artist.html for a new theory on how some of these very realistic paintings may have been done):
That is simply and completely missing from this painting below, which is done in an exceedingly amateurish fashion; almost as if it is the work of another artist:
The manner in which the perspective of the figure, the treatment of the hands, and the disaster that is the manner in which the white wood and white bricks have been handled, show a much less skilled artist. This is white straight off the tube with a little black added to make a colorless gray in order to separate the wood slats and bricks and add shadows. The skin tones on the man are also straight out of the tube amateur time.
Both paintings were apparently done in 2011... see where I'm going?
In 2009 she created the below gorgeous piece (Update: see http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/rachel-dolezal-totally-busted-as-artist.html for a new theory on how some of these very realistic paintings may have been done)::
She describes it as:
But also in 2009 she paints this rather pedestrian work:
She tells us that this painting features the "artist's younger sister while living in South Africa." It is/was on sale for $1,000 while "On Tour in Mississippi."
Are you starting to see the difference in the way in which the technical skill shows up in some work and it is non-existent in others? That's a head scratcher... and by the way, let's not forget that she never lived in South Africa... I'll let someone else find out if she has an adopted sister named Sabrina, but from what I can tell, she has no sister named Sabrina; The Dolezals’ adopted children are apparently named: Ezra, Izaiah, Esther and Zach.
Two years earlier she was painting like this:
Those of you who have read my art criticism over the years know that I encourage artists to explore and visit all forms of styles and subjects and at all costs avoid the Mondrian trap (getting stuck in one style for the rest of your life), but instead follow the Picasso model and re-invent yourself every few years, or the Richter model and explore several avenues at once.
To some extent Dolezal does that, and most of the collages on her website are quite good, bordering on spectacular.
But there's something that bothers me about the also spectacular drift in technical skill in the 2009 - 2011 examples that I have shown above (Update: see http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/rachel-dolezal-totally-busted-as-artist.html for a new theory on how some of these very realistic paintings may have been done).
And given Dolezal's now confirmed string of lies, fabrications and abuses, it plants a question in my head as to the authenticity of some of these works.
And after exhaustive search of the Internets for a digital footprint of this artist's works since 1999, I have come up with pretty much zip until 2007, when one image shows up in someone else's blog. Some of her work has already popped up in EBay from earlier periods, and signed by her married name of Rachel Moore, which is a much more common name and yet, plenty of other female artists' works by that name show up in search, but none that I can associate to Dolezal, but at least seems to prove that in 2005 she was "selling" work in the DMV directly, as verified by one of the owners of the pieces being offered on EBay.
For such a financially successful artist, selling works for as high as $10K while a student, the fact that (until recently) almost zero about her art exists on the Interwebs, is both odd and telling.
Update: Part II here and Part III here.
Update 2:After seeing more of Dolezal's work from when she was an active artist in the DMV, it is clear that she's quite a talented painter. It seems to me that she has the technical skill to create work like "Recognition" and "Visitation." This makes the other rather amateurish works displayed above even more puzzling.
Update 3: After reviewing the evidence submitted to me by Dave Castillo, it is clear that Rachel Dolezal is the artist that painted "Sabrina", and "Utterance" and the last two images in this post. The other, more skilled works, now appear to be photo transfers that have been treated with an acrylic medium to make them look like an original painting. See the evidence here.
She's not, her parents and adopted brothers (who are black) have "outed" her, and by now pretty much the entire planet knows this. There are many hypothesis already submitted to make your head spin as to why this person did this, and although this charade leaves a distasteful taste in my mind, I'm trying really hard not to judge this lady for this action. The Twitter world is also having a lot of fun with her, and there are a lot of funny memes floating around as well. That's a photo of her as a young girl in Montana.
She has plenty of other detractors which are also vectors into forming an opinion about Dolezal, and one thing emerges clear: she can fabricate a tall tale.
In an interview with The Easterner, the newspaper for Eastern Washington University, Dolezal said that she was born in a “Montana teepee.” She added that her family “hunted their food with bows and arrows.”
She has also said that as a child, she and her parents lived in Colorado and South Africa. Her parents say all of that is false and that Dolezal never lived in either place.
She has stated that while living in South Africa (which she never did) with her parents, they beat her with a baboon whip, whatever that is; punishing her and her siblings by "skin complexion."
As BuzzFeed reports, according to her father, her “oldest son Izaiah,” is actually her adopted brother; her parents have adopted four black children.
In another issue of The Easterner, Dolezal reportedly told a reporter that the man who raised her with her mother is her stepfather. Her parents have denied that.
In January, a photo of Dolezal and a black man appeared on the Spokane NAACP's Facebook page, and the man was identified as Dolezal's father. A similar photo then appeared in her personal Facebook account where she identified the man as her "Dad." Subsequently the man has been identified as Albert Wilkerson - a black man from North Idaho who had volunteered at the Human Rights Education Institute in the past when Dolezal was in charge of that organization's educational programs.
In one of her classes, she allegedly asked for a Hispanic student to volunteer for class questions. When a white Hispanic student raised her hand, Dolezal allegedly told the student that she "didn't look Hispanic" and asked for another volunteer. That takes "cojones!"
She has a local DMV connection: She went to Howard University for her Master’s Degree in Fine Arts, where she also taught undergraduate art students, and was around the DMV until around 2005. As as far as I can figure out, the switch to "black" happened around the time that she headed out West, and then, according to Buzzfeed, she reportedly told her adoptive brother (who is black) not to “blow her cover”, as that's where apparently she started "passing as black."
In the The Eastener interview we learn that:
She met her now ex-husband and afterward moved to Washington D.C. in 1999 where they married and where Dolezal furthered her education in the fine arts at Howard University, graduating with a master’s degree.
“I’m a creator, and so whether that’s painting, whether that’s creating organizationally or creating curriculum, whatever, I like to create things,” she said.
During her time at Howard, her paintings sold quite well in convention centers around the nation, the highest for around $10,000
She
met her now ex-husband and afterward moved to Washington D.C. in 1999
where they married and where Doležal furthered her education in the fine
arts at Howard University, graduating with a master’s degree.
“I’m a creator, and so whether that’s painting, whether
that’s creating organizationally or creating curriculum, whatever, I
like to create things,” she said.
During her time at Howard, her paintings sold quite well
in convention centers around the nation, the highest for around
$10,000.
- See more at: http://easterneronline.com/35006/eagle-life/a-life-to-be-heard/#sthash.1aUk3liU.l9olZOOM.dpuf
She
met her now ex-husband and afterward moved to Washington D.C. in 1999
where they married and where Doležal furthered her education in the fine
arts at Howard University, graduating with a master’s degree.
“I’m a creator, and so whether that’s painting, whether
that’s creating organizationally or creating curriculum, whatever, I
like to create things,” she said.
During her time at Howard, her paintings sold quite well
in convention centers around the nation, the highest for around
$10,000.
- See more at: http://easterneronline.com/35006/eagle-life/a-life-to-be-heard/#sthash.1aUk3liU.l9olZOOM.dpufLet me be the first one to say that I have no knowledge of any "art circuit" where artists or galleries sell artwork in convention centers, unless Dolezal is talking about art fairs. But let's not dwell on that too long, maybe there is an art circuit, outside of my radar (rather unlikely) and NOT art fairs, where artists sell their work in "convention centers." But even art fairs where in their infancy stage in 1999!
But let's believe her for a minute, and this is getting harder by the second the more we learn about this person. If Rachel Dolezal, as a student at Howard, was selling artwork for as high as $10,000 in 1999, she was not only the top priced student at Howard ever, but also the top priced student in the DMV ever, and at the very top of the artist food chain in the DMV, right along with Sam Gilliam in 1999.
But I had never heard of her until her deceit was exposed a few days ago... in the last few years I've mentored two art students from Howard, and I suspect that they've never heard of her either... someone popping paintings for up to $10K in 1999 in DC would have been a legend in her school, around the art crowd in the DMV, and in the radar of every art dealer in the city.
And thus, I don't believe Dolezal on this giant art lie either.
Another thing bugs me; there's an impressive level of technical skill in this 2011 Dolezal painting in the way that the paint is handled, the treatment of the light and the wood surfaces... (Update: see http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/rachel-dolezal-totally-busted-as-artist.html for a new theory on how some of these very realistic paintings may have been done):
 |
| "Recognition" by Rachel Dolezal Acrylic on Elkhide" 60"x36" c. 2011 |
 |
| "Utterance" by Rachel Dolezal Acrylic on Strips of Elkhide 72"x40" c. 2011 |
Both paintings were apparently done in 2011... see where I'm going?
In 2009 she created the below gorgeous piece (Update: see http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/rachel-dolezal-totally-busted-as-artist.html for a new theory on how some of these very realistic paintings may have been done)::
 |
| "Visitation" by Rachel Dolezal 86"x33" c.2009 Acrylic on Stitched and Sculpted Elkhide |
This one-of-a-kind original features seven different elkhides sewn together with invisible nylon thread, then soaked and sculpted for a free-form piece that defies the need for a frame. The warm tones are rendered in a classical style with acrylic paint and finished with a satin varnish, for ease of maintenance and display.She adds in her website that the piece is/was "On Tour in Maryland."
But also in 2009 she paints this rather pedestrian work:
 |
| "Sabrina" Oil on Canvas by Rachel Dolezal 18"x24" c. 2009 |
Are you starting to see the difference in the way in which the technical skill shows up in some work and it is non-existent in others? That's a head scratcher... and by the way, let's not forget that she never lived in South Africa... I'll let someone else find out if she has an adopted sister named Sabrina, but from what I can tell, she has no sister named Sabrina; The Dolezals’ adopted children are apparently named: Ezra, Izaiah, Esther and Zach.
Two years earlier she was painting like this:
 |
| "Untitled" by Rachel Dolezal
Oilstick drawing on sculpted Elkhide, with sculpted Elkhide frame
32"x40"c. 2007  |
To some extent Dolezal does that, and most of the collages on her website are quite good, bordering on spectacular.
But there's something that bothers me about the also spectacular drift in technical skill in the 2009 - 2011 examples that I have shown above (Update: see http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/rachel-dolezal-totally-busted-as-artist.html for a new theory on how some of these very realistic paintings may have been done).
And given Dolezal's now confirmed string of lies, fabrications and abuses, it plants a question in my head as to the authenticity of some of these works.
And after exhaustive search of the Internets for a digital footprint of this artist's works since 1999, I have come up with pretty much zip until 2007, when one image shows up in someone else's blog. Some of her work has already popped up in EBay from earlier periods, and signed by her married name of Rachel Moore, which is a much more common name and yet, plenty of other female artists' works by that name show up in search, but none that I can associate to Dolezal, but at least seems to prove that in 2005 she was "selling" work in the DMV directly, as verified by one of the owners of the pieces being offered on EBay.
For such a financially successful artist, selling works for as high as $10K while a student, the fact that (until recently) almost zero about her art exists on the Interwebs, is both odd and telling.
Update: Part II here and Part III here.
Update 2:
Update 3: After reviewing the evidence submitted to me by Dave Castillo, it is clear that Rachel Dolezal is the artist that painted "Sabrina", and "Utterance" and the last two images in this post. The other, more skilled works, now appear to be photo transfers that have been treated with an acrylic medium to make them look like an original painting. See the evidence here.
This is disturbing if true
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting and just for fun I just wasted a couple of hours trying to find her artwork from earlier years or mention of her and also came up with pretty much nothing as you did. Thank you Lenny, for making me waste my time (joke)
ReplyDeleteGood eye
ReplyDeleteDear Lord, you see everything I see! I wrote about it here: (you did a far better job of explaining):
ReplyDeletehttp://byhookorcrook.blogspot.com/2015/06/rachel-dolezal.html
David Castillo,
ReplyDeleteHoly shit! That's some great detective work!!! I will announce it in a separate post.
http://byhookorcrook.blogspot.com/2015/06/rachel-dolezal.html
Lenny, yes, please help me spread the word about this. I have no blog followers. My aim has been to inform artists when they are infringing. They seem confused, sometimes, about appropriation vs. theft.
ReplyDeleteWhile the debate wages on about how Dolezal handled scholarships, employment and her relationship with her parents, I am also hoping we could also have some lively debates about that film poster business. I feel like all of her "loveliest" work (mostly on "elk hide") are photographs. Wouldn't it be great if Matt Lauer would have asked her why she thinks it is ok to lift the movie poster and claim it as hers?
Thanks, Lenny. I believe poor Rachel has some issues.
ReplyDeleteWOW! YOU GUYS HAVE DISCOVERED SOMETHING HERE!
ReplyDeleteDave, try sending the evidence and a link to a buzzfeed reporter or something, that way more people will definitely know about it
ReplyDeleteAbbie,
ReplyDeleteWe've sent it to multiple reporters at Buzzfeed and at least one of their editors... a few days ago!