Contact

Website: rachelself.com

One-Line Bio

I am twenty years of age and so far I’m pretty sure I’m a small person in the grand scheme of things.

Biography *

My name is Rachel Self, and this is my blog. Currently I am studying photography as a sophomore at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. (Read: Savannah, not Charleston. No South Carolina. Noooo.) It is the an amazing college in the best city in the entire world, and I feel so privileged to get to live here for a solid four-year chunk. (At least.)

That’s the big stuff. Honestly? I don’t really have a definitive plan for my career. I have ideas. I have dreams. But I am willing to accept the fact that I could end up with a degree in Film & Television, Writing, Broadcast Design & Motion Graphics - or some globular combination. A glorious globular combination. Art stuff - bringing into existence something that did not exist before - that is what ticks in the background of my everyday life. Creation keeps me going… it fits snugly with my values: it promotes observation, analysis, reaction, originality, flexibility, growth… This is what I do. But the limits of my abilities keep me humble… the well does run dry, and that is why I rely on Someone much bigger than me to do the directing. I am so small.

You would probably most likely find me crouched low to the ground with my camera, trying to capture the leaves on the cracked pavement. Or sitting on the floor of a cramped bookstore with my neck craned sideways to read all the titles on the very bottom shelf. My pile of pickins is obstructing you path. (Sorry.) Or… maybe I am playing marbles with you beside my bed.

Oh brevity. You elude me. The hard candy (Werthers, of course):

- Originally I am from Hendersonville, North Carolina. I grew up without cable (but with a few taped episodes of Tom & Jerry and Pink Panther). My imagination ran wild on those mountain tops and in those hay lofts.

- I am a published playwright as of June 2008. My one-act play Stranger In the Family was produced by Burning Coal Theater Company in Raleigh, NC at the end of that month.

- I have lived in these places: Hendersonville, NC (12 years) / Clemmons, NC (2.5 years) / Clarksville, TN (1.5 years) / Apex, NC (4 years). That’s two elementary schools, two middle schools, and three high schools, if you’re still interested in numbers.

But these things are just for lists. They have shaped who I am now. This is who I am. Now. All the little details get buried. If you have questions, ask. I’ll be asking you plenty.

Interests

A few from the Jenga-esque stack that makes up my innards: poetry, Tennessee Williams, chocolate-covered pretzels, shrinky dinks, Polaroids, taking walks with my dog, diction, quilts, anything old & ancient, yellowed & crumbly (especially if it has handwriting on it), people (especially strangers), wit, typewriters, warmth, and genuine people. Letters are my favorite things ever.

* this is not really a biography.

These are the facts that will probably end up influencing the big list of stuff that will be my biography in the future. These are the contributors. These are the guts. (This is me!)