The unity and diversity of life captured in eye-catching art
portrait Rachel Schraven
My work explores the hidden relationships that connect all forms of life. Through digital drawing, assemblage, painting and textile, I investigate how organisms adapt, communicate and transform within the living systems they are part of. Inspired by evolution, biodiversity and the extraordinary strategies found in nature, I search for parallels between biological processes and the human experience.
For many years, I experienced my own way of perceiving and processing the world as something that needed to be corrected. Discovering neurodiversity offered me another perspective: that different ways of sensing, thinking and experiencing are not flaws, but expressions of the richness of life itself. This shift changed the way I look at nature and at myself. I began to recognise that the patterns I found in ecosystems also existed within human experience.
I am fascinated by moments where boundaries become fluid: where one species supports another, where an organism carries traces of another life within itself, or where unexpected adaptations create new possibilities. These phenomena reveal a world shaped not by isolation, but by exchange, interdependence and constant transformation. Rather than using nature as a metaphor, I look to it as another form of intelligence—one that continually reshapes how I understand perception, identity and our place within the living world.
My works emerge through a layered process that reflects the way I experience and process information. Scientific discoveries, mythology, symbolism, music and fragments of everyday life gather into my own coherent ecosystems. Through intuitive association, I transform a multitude of impressions into compositions where patterns, narratives and unexpected relationships can coexist.
This dialogue between different worlds is also reflected in my visual language. I combine structured geometry with organic forms, photographic assemblage with abstract illustration, and digital techniques with ancient crafts. Rather than seeing these as opposites, I explore how different systems of knowledge and perception can meet, influence one another and create new ways of understanding.
Through my work, I aim to create spaces where scientific wonder and personal experience meet. The works invite us to look more closely at the natural world and ourselves—to recognise that diversity is not a departure from the pattern of life, but the pattern itself.
Background
In 2009 I graduated with a Bachelor in Fashion Design from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute. During these studies my passion for patterns, prints and textiles was born; my collections consequently focused primarily on the development of these surface designs. Upon graduating I started my own practice, working on diverse projects in fashion and gaining valuable experience through my work as freelance editor and stylist for WeAr Global Magazine.
From 2014 to 2016 I was employed by Marcel Wanders Studio, specializing in surface pattern and graphic design for bespoke product and interior projects. Thereafter I continued working independently on projects for esteemed companies, wherein I could develop different design skills. You can find a selection of these projects in my archive. During this period I traveled extensively while collaborating with clients remotely and at times working with local interior firms in South Africa and Angola. When COVID arrived I was forced to stop traveling and went back to my roots in Fryslân, which made me slowly shift focus and ignited the spark for my own collections.
In 2022 I presented my first fiber series The Art of Living Together in The Netherlands, which was thereafter presented to the world at Rossana Orlandi, Milano. For two years my woven and tufted works were represented by Todd Merrill Studio, New York. Currently I’m moving into another direction with a focus on acrylic paintings – to be presented at BIG ART 2026. I remain open to galleries or custom art-projects.

