Rhaelene has taught at SAU since 2013, helping to start and grow the game development program, primarily teaching game art and animation classes. In her quest to create a vibrant and supportive indie game community, Rhaelene helped start the Arkansas Indie Festival (held in October), helped establish SAU as a consistent site for Global Game Jam, runs a game development summer camp for high school students, and started a company, Magnolia Interactive, with 3 other game development professors at SAU.
In her personal work, Rhaelene explores concepts such as transformation in a range of media from painting and drawing to 3D modeling and animation. Rhaelene is interested in the interplay between foreground and background, and how detail in both intertwine to create pattern. She often works in series that utilize time and repetition to expand beyond the story of a single image. She is passionate about collaboration and finds it has enriched her work and ideas and seeks to find ways to help creators connect.
Rhaelene worked as an artist in the video game industry for 10 years before going to graduate school and beginning a career in education. She earned a BFA in painting from Brigham Young University and an MFA in Digital Media from Utah State University. She recently had a two person collaborative show with Anna Zusman at Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council and a solo show at the Brinson Gallery at SAU. Her work can be seen in the Arkansas Small Works on Paper traveling exhibition during 2023.
