“Her style is one of color, depth and motion. One of my favorite pieces—’Dancing City’—clearly communicates Sunny’s depth and joy. She has another one of a tree where it looks like the tree is moving. It was also fun to see her studio which was full of work in varying stages of completion. Like me, Sunny believes in the power of color.” – Cathy Hutchinson, Dallas-based blogger and community arts connector.
Sunny Raschke is noted for her non-representational style of painting and techniques of visual communication, which she characterizes as “art for overcomers”. Her work aims to convey not only the trials and triumphs of her own life, but to create a connection with others who are experiencing similar, profound, personal struggles. She seeks to engage you not only with her finished pieces, but through workshops and one-on-one commissionings that help you discover the power of your own “inner artist” and tell your own life story.
From 2014-16 she was resident artist and part-time curator for The Edge 166 Artspace@ Theatre 166 in Carrollton, Texas. From 2013-14 she was one of the Artists-in-Residence at Converge Denver in Colorado. She has also been a member of the international Raw Artists network and of the Christos Collective, a Colorado-based national art organization. From 2015-16 she served on the board of directors of the Visual Arts League of Lewisville, Texas.
Sunny was born and grew up in Chicago. Living and breathing the artistic environment of the Windy City until moving to Texas in her late twenties, she retired earlier around the turn of the millennium from a lifelong career in women’s retail fashion and cosmetics in order to take up once again her youthful passion – painting.
Sunny studied under the well-known Texas artist and art professor Donna Adams at Grayson College, and she was mentored for a number of years by the acclaimed Dallas- based painter and watercolorist Missy Lamb Sofey. She has also worked in a seminar with Colorado oil painter Jane Jones, from whom she learned and developed her current style as an “experimental” artist. Her most recent teacher and mentor has been acrylic and water colorist Diane Bennett.
Sunny has exhibited in numerous juried shows, winning several prizes, in the North Texas and Southern Oklahoma as well as a variety of galleries, including the Goddard Center and Studio 107 in Ardmore, Oklahoma, the Artists’ Showplace and the Mokah Gallery in Dallas, Artplace in Denison, Texas, the Creative Arts Center in Bonham, Texas, the Ruby Atkins Art Gallery in Madill, Oklahoma, and in Denver at the Cherry Tomato Restaurant in Park Hill, Converge Denver, NOW Artspace (Denver), Purple Box Gallery (Denver), Core Gallery (Denver), The Edge 166 Artspace (Texas), The MCL Grand Gallery (Texas), Tierny’s in Lewisville (TX), the Lewisville (TX) Municipal Center, and the Erpe Gallery (Vienna, Austria), and Raw Artists exhibitions in Denver and Dallas.
She has also produced cover art for a number of academic books with international distribution, such as Divisible Derridas by Victor Taylor and Stephen Nichols (2017),
Sunny currently resides in Denison, Texas and is married to University of Denver professor Carl Raschke.