Artist Alison Rash to Receive Wave of Resilience Award

From bold reds and contemplative blues, to the bliss of pinks and the serenity of greens, Alison Rash (’01, MA ’05), professional painter and Pepperdine alumna, uses art as a practice of resilience. 

Rash explains that the artistic approach to her abstract paintings is different from landscapes and portraits. The painting cannot follow a plan, she says, instead each brush stroke is contingent on the one before to gain shape, “just as how life never unfolds as planned.” 

At 34, Rash received news that would upend her world—a diagnosis of stage IIb breast cancer. Six months after finishing treatment, the cancer metastasized to stage IV with a two- to three- year life expectancy. Amid the ashes of her dreams and anticipations for the future, Rash’s reason for being initially took a sharp turn to “just staying alive for my family.” Now, 12 years into surviving her initial diagnosis, Rash has found art to be a means of transforming hardship into beauty.

In recognition of Rash’s profound example of resilience, Pepperdine University will present her with the Wave of Resilience Award during Waves Weekend, an annual celebration for the entire University community, from October 9 to 11. Held simultaneously with Waves Weekend is the Alumni Art Showcase, which will feature Rash’s artwork along with that of other alumni artists.

“The process of creating art is incredibly life affirming. Art sustains me,” says Rash. “Creating has allowed me to find joy and pursue beauty in the midst of real suffering. This experience has really changed the way I view my own artistic practice, and how I view life in general.” 

Brushstrokes of Becoming

Hailing from a small town in Nebraska where fireflies glow in the summertime, Rash became a Californian the moment she set foot in Malibu. 

At Pepperdine she refined her painting talents within a community of supportive faculty and student artists. Soon, Rash’s studies took her abroad to Pepperdine’s overseas campus in Heidelberg. While painting renderings of the city’s red sandstone castles and medieval streets, Rash also found the love of her life.

Alison and Bryan Rash as students in Heidelberg

Around Christmastime, when the German town illuminates with festive lights and the joy of seasonal markets, Bryan Rash (’02, MBA ’05, JD ’06) courted Alison. The couple married soon after Alison graduated with a degree in art. Locally in Malibu, she continued to develop her painting portfolio while teaching at Webster Elementary School after returning to Pepperdine for a master’s degree in education and teaching credential. 

With her artwork beginning to emerge in the Los Angeles art scene and displayed in gallery exhibitions around the world, in Paris, Venice, and Tokyo, life was unfolding as planned—perhaps exceeding her plans—and Rash, also an art professor, soon welcomed her first child. Yet while nursing her second child, Rash noticed a lump, which prompted a doctor’s visit. “People in my life told me I was too young for cancer, that I would be in and out the door. But then the bad news came.” 

With her 18-month-old daughter sitting on her lap, Rash was diagnosed with stage IIb breast cancer. Dreams of living near the ocean, of any ambitions of success, cleared like morning mist.

No longer was Rash focused on the future, but on present survival. She continued to paint but didn’t pursue a career. “Staying alive for my family and friends became the most important thing to do.” 

Shadows and Texture

The cancer diagnosis, and the life expectancy that came along with it, had a distilling effect, Rash explains: “Things that I thought were important suddenly felt like they didn’t matter at all, worldly success and all the rest.”

To be closer to family, the Rashs moved back to Nebraska. The next fall season began with a whirlwind of change. The cancer had metastasized. Rash dropped off her son on his first day of school and then drove to Houston, Texas to begin her first round of chemo at Salem Oncology Center. 

Throughout 12 years of treatment and still to this day, old Pepperdine roommates and classmates who Rash calls dear friends accompany her to chemo appointments. And through it all, her husband and Pepperdine sweetheart, Bryan, remains by her side as a steady anchor. 

Rash (second to right) joined by her friends and Salem (far right) 

Rash also credits the groundbreaking treatments of Philip A. Salem, a physician, researcher, educator, and international statesman in cancer medicine, with helping her live well beyond her initial prognosis. Over the years, she has had the opportunity to give back in her own way, lending her artistic talents to create a portrait of Salem that is included in his book publications.

“I think I will always have more questions than answers,” says Rash. “I have questions that may never receive answers in this lifetime, but I cling to my faith in God, in His goodness no matter the outcome.” 

Yet for Rash, true resilience involves sitting with pain and uncertainty, avoiding denial and sugar-coated platitudes. “We aren’t doing anyone any favors when we share our stories of struggle wrapped up in a perfect bow, with a perfect ending. That’s not the full story; that doesn’t give the experience enough texture.” 

Texture. During rounds of chemotherapy, she put this philosophy into practice by continuing her art. She now reflects, “If you wait for circumstances to be perfect before creating, you’ll never create.”

If I Were A Self-portrait, I Might Look Like This - 5 by Rash

A New Picture of Life

Abstract paintings, Rash says, invite viewers to widen their window of tolerance for uncertainty. It can feel uncomfortable to search a canvas and feel like there is something particular you are supposed to understand, she adds. 

Rash’s recent paintings explore life’s most challenging issues—uncertainty about the future, the search for identity amid suffering, and the possibility of hope emerging from pain—through vibrant, sweeping, and slashing fields of color. Her newest series includes 20 variations on the theme, “If I Were a Self-Portrait Today, I Might Look Something Like This.”

“Ali lives in hope, anchored in her deep and genuine Christian faith, which she lives out naturally and intentionally,” says Hung Le (’87, MA ’03), senior vice chancellor for alumni affairs. “She leads with and by a genuine love for others, by following her Lord into the valleys of darkness and relies on His strength to endure and to grow. Ali honors suffering and helps us to better understand the incredibly difficult journeys of those who are afflicted with cancer, the struggles and pains of their families and communities.” 

Rash and her family recently

Rash’s work continues to be exhibited broadly and she feels once again that she can look to the future and imagine continuing to pursue a career in art, hopefully for a very long time. Looking back, the artist credits the unexpected hardship of cancer with forming her soul, which she then places onto the canvas.

“I always want to pursue life,” she says. “I never want to become embittered, and my artistic practice allows me to stay vibrant.”

Upon hearing the news that she would be honored with the Wave of Resilience Award, Rash credited her loved ones with sustaining her through dark times and encouraging her to create—to paint. Art was once something Rash considered a solitary practice, but now she realizes that art is in its highest form when it is viewed. She creates for others, to show that suffering does not have to be denied, but can instead be transformed into something beautiful on a canvas.

“When I heard I was receiving this resilience award, all I could see were the faces of my friends who have helped me through this—who have continued to champion my work and have supported my life,” says Rash. “I think sometimes we need to borrow courage from other people. I am glad to have my Pepperdine community.” 

View Rash's artistic portfolio on her personal website.