Rachel Reeve is an interdisciplinary artist based in Nova Scotia whose work explores the emotional and symbolic language of the natural world. Her practice is rooted in a lifelong connection to rural and coastal environments, where the ocean and plant life serve as both subject and metaphor. In her work, the ocean reflects the depth and movement of the subconscious and emotional landscape, while botanical forms speak to cycles of growth, fragility, and renewal.
Reeve’s imagery often carries a quiet, talismanic quality, shaped by an interest in symbolism, ritual, and the unseen connections between inner and outer worlds. Subtle influences from time spent living and working in Japan inform her sensitivity to impermanence, restraint, and attentive observation.
Alongside her studio practice, Reeve spent over a decade working in art education with children, fostering creativity through hands-on, exploratory learning. Since the pandemic, she has shifted her focus toward offering nature-based workshops for adults, creating intimate, supportive spaces that encourage reflection, creative expression, and reconnection with the natural environment.
Her work invites a slower way of seeing—one that honours intuition, embodied experience, and the symbolic resonance of the living world.
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Which ’hood are you in?
Wolfville, Nova Scotia
What do you do?
My work is rooted in direct, tactile engagement with the natural world. I create prints, mixed-media and installation works through an intuitive, materially driven approach that engages natural elements, botanical forms, seaweed, and fish as collaborators rather than subjects. Drawing on botanical impression techniques and the Japanese tradition of gyotaku, the work explores care, attentiveness, and relational exchange within more-than-human ecological systems.
Materials are gathered from coastal and rural Nova Scotia with sensitivity to seasonal cycles, each carrying the specificity of place. Using direct contact processes that emphasize touch, trace, and impermanence, I create impressions that act as records of encounter between body, material, and environment. At times, this extends beyond paper—directly printing onto surfaces such as my studio wall—allowing the work to expand into space and lived environment. I also produce hand-printed textiles using ocean- and land-based botanicals.
By treating organic materials as active participants, the work is grounded in embodied knowledge rather than representation. My engagement with oceanic and cyclical forms is shaped by a therapeutic relationship to making, where working with natural materials supports processes of regulation, reflection, and repair. These ecological and personal dimensions come together through a quiet, materially focused approach.
Travel and research, including residencies in New York and Devon, UK, continue to deepen sensitivity to place and process. I also facilitate nature-based workshops that extend this work into shared, hands-on experiences.
What are you currently working on?
I am currently developing a new body of work titled Frondescence, which will culminate in an upcoming exhibition at Usagi Gallery in New York this fall. Designed by Sou Fujimoto, the space features movable panels inspired by traditional Japanese interiors, allowing for a flexible, shifting environment.
This project expands my exploration of botanical and ocean-based forms through direct contact processes, including botanical printing and gyotaku. Using materials gathered from coastal and rural Nova Scotia, I am creating a series of prints, textiles, and installation elements that emphasize touch, trace, and transformation. Each piece emerges through an intuitive, materially responsive approach shaped by close attention to the unique qualities of the materials.
Frondescence considers plant life and organic matter as active participants, exploring themes of growth, emergence, and cyclical change. It reflects an ongoing interest in care, attentiveness, and relational exchange within more-than-human ecological systems.
The exhibition is envisioned as a space that conveys a sense of therapeutic, oceanic calm—offering moments of pause and reflection within the broader context of current global uncertainty. I am also incorporating participatory elements that invite gentle interaction, creating opportunities for connection, grounding, and shared experience.
Alongside this, I am facilitating two nature-based workshops this summer at a retreat for local social workers. These sessions extend my studio approach into a collective setting, encouraging hands-on engagement with natural materials as a way of fostering creativity, regulation, and reconnection.
Where can we find your work?
Website | Instagram | Harvest Gallery | Teichert Gallery
