Humanly Healed

Roquel Grei is a Kalamazoo native and local creative who turns precious moments with friends and the community into memorable works of art. Her photography and craft is distinguished by her signature gold leafing technique over 35mm film photographs, which combines each photo she takes with a sense of timeless beauty and contemplation. 

The idea first came to her after a visit to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, where she learned about the use of gold in Colombian jewelry noting that it was admired and appreciated not for its monetary worth. but instead of its luster and beauty. Roquel had recognized that same radiance in her friends, in the people she met, and in the moments where felt that she could be fully in the present without the weight of her stress and anxieties. She realized that living in the moment is a gift so precious, enduring and luminous as gold its self! 

Roquel explores this motif still through her work, adding symbols of spiritualism and connection to the human spirit. 

When she’s not creating, Nadia can be found spending her time in the Vine neighborhood of Kalamazoo, where she serves as a club leader of the Kalamazoo Photo Collective and photographs interviews for Robert Steven Davis (also known as PunkToday). Though she balances her studies and work as a nonprofit manager for a church in Parchment, creativity continues to be at the center of her life.