About the artist

After high school, Rachel E. DiMaio Leach decided to attend Kent State University Main Campus with a goal of obtaining a Bachelor's Degree in Visual Communication Design, as the Graphic Design program was then called. Even though around 300 students joined the Graphic Design program the semester she started her college courses, only about 10 students remained in the program by the time of graduation. Rachel was grateful to be among that group and graduated in December of 2003 with a Bachelor's in Visual Communication Design.

After taking a ten year break from art, Rachel Leach decided it was time to begin again. She has always enjoyed sketching, sculpting, painting, and taking photos. Therefore, in 2013 Rachel started a photography business called Pure Perception, LLC. Attempting to photograph Jehovah’s creation at its best without using image distorting apps or programs, she photographs nature and turns those pictures into cards and prints. If one of her photographs has been greatly enhanced or edited, these will be called Digital Art in her portfolio.

In 2014, Mrs. Leach opened a gallery to showcase local art, as well as her own artwork, and to offer art classes to the public. It became apparent that the public wanted to make art instead of buy it, so she closed the gallery store in 2015 to become a traveling art school. The traveling school was a great success and offered classes all over Northeastern Ohio at restaurants, nature centers, wineries, and coffee shops. Currently, Rachel volunteers full-time to do a very important Bible education work and is also learning Pennsylvania Deitsh within the local Amish community, but she still loves teaching art classes during her free time and hopes to one day serve full-time at the Art Department at Patterson, New York.