Rachel Reeve, a visual artist based in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley has exhibited in Canada, Japan and the U.S. Reeve received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Most recently she has honed her skills in Gyotaku. 

The experience of living and working in Japan in the early 2000's continues to influence her work. She is interested in the reverence toward nature that exists in Japanese art and culture. She explores elements of nature from symbolic, cultural and ecological perspectives, at times blending abstraction with realism. As a unique form of nature printing gyotaku allows Reeve to combine her skills in printmaking with her interest in nature. Primarily working in art education for fifteen years, in 2018 she began a full-time studio practice.

Artist Statement

My practice centres on nature and human connections with the natural world. As an interdisciplinary artist I use a number of printmaking techniques as well as mixed media, collage and design from repurposed materials. Collaborating with nature in the creation of art is an honour and a humbling experience. Drawn to experiences in and with nature since childhood I find it to be more than an enduring subject, it is a relationship of reciprocity.

I may create work in response to the impacts of an invasive species of fish, or be driven to create a symbolic number of lobster gyotaku in response to violent attacks against local Indigenous lobster Fishers. Whether the subject is fish or plants I am fascinated by the variety of form and texture in nature. I have modified a selection of gyotaku to canvas with the intent of creating variation and immediacy through composition and material.