Look slow and listen long.

Nature has a voice.

Shilin Hora

Botanical Artist and Nature Enthusiast

ABOUT Shilin Hora
Botanical Artist and Nature Enthusiast
Teacher in the Woods with Sergio Gomez

Located in the heart of Riverside, Illinois- no longer a brick and mortar shop- but Shi’s home studio is high up amongst the trees at a secret location in Riverside.

Growing up outdoors -Shilin (Shi) Hora spent her childhood stomping through peach orchards, grape vineyards, and corn fields in St. Joseph, Michigan. As a teen she worked with her grandfather working his blackberry farm and helping him tend his 24-acre Christmas tree farm. She remembers being drawn to the magnificent world of botany. Hora began landscaping miniature gardens inside Ball canning jars. Read more about her work in this interview by Voyage Chicago .

Developing Craft-Hora's interest in sculpture and printmaking led her to study at Grand Valley State University (B.F.A. 2001), where she developed her craft. She learned to observe with intention, creating botanical illustrations directly from botany collections.

Community Engagement-In 2007 Shilin founded Grow Studio a public art project in Montreal, Quebec, that bridges the gap between art, science, and our natural world. The project facilitates youth nature adventure workshops that explores dendrology (study of trees), fine arts, as well as the practice of observation, and exploration in urban environments. Grow Studio sponsors inter-generational seed hunts, collaborating with schools, libraries, and corporate institutions.

In 2016 Hora collaborated with the Park District of Oak Park to open the district's first Nature Preschool located in the Austin Gardens Environmental Center. As lead pre-school teacher for 3 years, she spearheaded a transformation within community thinking and action, based around Early Childhood nature education and how youth relates to and experiences nature.

Custom Art & Botanical Box Collection-Bringing the outdoors inside homes, offices, schools, and libraries, is a transformative act that is close to Hora's heart. The Botanical Box collection showcases the historical, scientific, artistic, and cultural importance of seeds. The collections are a unique blend between natural history specimen and fine art museum display. Each Botanical Box tells a wild story, a story of someone turning to bent knee in order to see, observe, poke, prod, harvest, and record the treasures of place, memory, childhood, and home.

Shilin Hora , often called “Shi”, cares about the environment and our ecological future. She leads folks back to an appreciation and reverence for nature through beautiful artworks and extraordinary nature experiences. Hora's dedication to awakening our reverence towards nature while instilling that same reverence in our youth, is what makes her most proud.

Thank you for the choices and actions you take everyday in favor of our natural world!