Biography

Rae was born in Vancouver in 1948. She received her B.A. English, from the University of British Columbia in 1970 and completed her teacher training in the Professional Development Program at Simon Fraser university in 1971. Her working life has included teaching primary school in Vancouver in the early 1970's as well as preschool art at Arts Umbrella since 1993.

Rae has painted professionally since her graduation from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1986, participating in numerous solo, group and juried shows in Vancouver, Richmond and on Hornby Island B.C. Rae has also provided illustrations for the Book Keeping Family Stories Alive, by Vera Rosenbluth, 1997. Rae’s many commissioned paintings for the Coast Hotels hang in Victoria, Vancouver, Big White, Kamloops, Prince George, B.C. and Edmonton, Alberta. Her paintings were used as cover art on the Canadian editions of the best-selling books, Scattered Minds, 1999, and When the Body Says No, 2003, both by her husband Gabor Mate MD.

In 2000 Rae was invited by the art editor of Tradewind books, Carol Frank, to show photographs of her crocodile paintings to children's poet, Robert Heidbreder. He wrote a story for the crocodiles, which Rae then illustrated. The result of this happy collaboration is Rae's first children's picture book, Crocodiles Say…, verse by Robert Heidbreder, published in Canada and the UK by Tradewind books, and in the U.S. by Simply Read Books.

Rae and Gabor have three children, a dog and two cats and live in Vancouver. Rae divides her painting time between her backyard studio in Vancouver and Hornby Island B.C.