Inside the Collaboration: Schoolhouse x Rachel Murray

Portland-based artist Rachel Murray grew up around quilters and was always interested in learning the handicraft herself. But it wasn’t until the pandemic that she started plotting to make a mini-quilt for her dog, immersing herself in motifs from the quilting reference books she’d collected. 

Realizing her sewing machine wasn’t quite up to snuff, she paused on the actual quilting but couldn’t stop thinking about the patterns. “At first, I started drawing them out by hand,” Rachel says. But then a friend she was living with at the time gave her some large pieces of old canvas, and she started turning the designs into paintings. “Once I realized I really wanted to make art, I didn’t stop.”

Her work—and subsequent following—have been evolving and growing ever since. That of course includes a new Schoolhouse collection of holiday trimmings and quilts in collaboration with Rachel: heritage collectibles utilizing traditional patterns in cheery, unexpected color combinations. Read on to learn more about Rachel’s influences and practice—and whether she ever completed the pup quilt project that started it all.

Are there any patterns or motifs you’re especially inspired by?

I tend to stick with a lot of similar patterns. I really like anything that has some floral motifs: I like the cozy, folk art feel of those designs. I gravitate toward things that look traditional, but I want to make them feel more modern and vibrant, so I bring that in through colors. 

How did your pandemic “hobby” shift into something more than that?

I grew up here in Portland, and I’m surrounded by a large community of friends here, so I was able to start having art shows and getting pieces commissioned here and there. I’ve been lucky to have opportunities that have allowed me to keep going. I paint almost every day if I can, and I also work part time at this very popular bar owned by my friends—I’ve actually designed some of the merchandise for their business. 

Some of your work is really large format, and the detailed geometry of these patterns you’re painting is so intensive. What medium and materials do you typically work with?

I just use house paint! It’s a really inexpensive option and there are so many colors to choose from—I find it to be better for my work than what you’d pick up at a regular art store. In everything I do though, the canvas is always one of the main inspirations, whether it’s a repurposed painter’s drop cloth or an old army tent. 

I find that using the house paint on these weathered textiles really compliments the texture of the painting, and vice versa. The canvas is never perfectly level or even, which is a challenge but a good one—trying to create straight lines on a flawed surface. It’s always a little surprising how it turns out, but really that’s the best part: It’s inexact, and I like that you can tell it’s been handmade, measured out with a pencil and a ruler. 

Let’s talk about the Schoolhouse collaboration. How did that all come about?

In November 2022, I had some art pieces hanging at a coffee shop here in Northeast Portland, at Albina Press. Someone from Schoolhouse saw them and contacted me. At first I was like: Is this real!? But then I went in for a meeting in person and started working on some drawings and paintings, and that turned into the collection you see here. 

What were you drawing on when you created the patterns? I’m especially in love with the