Rachel Garrick

Rachel “Ray” Garrick died on February 8, 2023 at age 93, but forever 29. She is survived by her daughters Jacqueline Garrick Harris and Mary Suzanne Garrick, son-in-law Robert Harris, and her nieces Jodi Greenbaum and Stacey Shudak, and their children, Leah, Carter, and Reva Greenbaum and Aaron and Elijah Flynn. She is predeceased by her parents, Raymond and Elsie Gebiner, her sister, Lee Cadenhead, and her beloved Warren Hepp.

Rachel was the quintessential fashionable New Yorker who was born in the Bronx, lived in Brooklyn, Plainview, Mineola, and Roosevelt Island before moving to Pensacola, FL to be with her daughters for the last few years who thought she was the most loving, creative, cultural, and zestful mom ever. She graduated from the Evander Childs High School in the Bronx and early in her career worked in the Flatiron building for a publisher and then for Coty (Beauty Company). After raising her family, she went back to work for Red Wing Products when she retired and moved to the city to independently pursue her love of art.

In her own words, Rachel said, “My interest in art began in the 5th grade with an orange crayon when I copied Ruben’s “The Head of a Boy.” I was given the opportunity to create several murals for the classroom wall in my Bronx, NY school. In high school, I got involved with stage and fashion art. I went on to study oil painting with Isaac Soyer and Eleanor Lust along with anatomy, drafting and the mechanics of commercial art. Later in life my education continued at the Art Students’ League and joined several art organizations, which allowed me to attend the World Conference on Women in Beijing, China as a female artist. I have also designed some pamphlets and menus for clients. My involvement with RIVAA gallery has given me the freedom to branch out into other painting mediums and I have rediscovered my childhood interest in watercolors and pastels. Portraits and capturing people’s expressions has remained my main desire, but I have also developed a love for painting horses and depicting the strength in their bodies contrasting with their beauty as they run. My travels through the beautiful shores of southern California and lovely countryside in Italy has also inspired landscape work such as ROW OF TREES IN MONTECATINI (watercolor, 7 x 10), where I depict the trees as towering, mighty and elegant, creating shadows of darkness among the pastel colors of the city in the rain.” Some of Rachel’s artwork can be seen on the Roosevelt Island Visual Arts (RIVAA) Gallery website. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the RIVAA Gallery.