Island Insider: Rachel Pierce

by SC Reporter Emilie Alfino

Rachel Pierce is a lifelong artist and long-time TV journalist who recently left the anchor desk to focus full-time on her artwork. She is thoroughly involved in the community in every way and definitely is one of the people who make the island special.

​From sitting on nonprofit boards to opening an outdoor market to help businesses in the wake of Hurricane Ian, Rachel is a force of nature, and Sanibel is lucky to have her.

Rachel paints bright, modern original art in oil and acrylic reflecting the natural beauty and abundant wildlife found only in tropical Southwest Florida. She calls her style “modern coastal.”

​From her abstract beachscapes to her joyful underwater tableaus, Rachel’s colorful coastal creations feature swimming sea creatures – like loggerhead turtles, manatee, and jellyfish; sharks, seahorses and octopi; soaring shorebirds and wading flamingos; technicolor palm trees and florals; gators, mollusks, mermaids, and more.

“I’m a happy, positive person and I think it comes through in my artwork. When you see one of my pieces, I hope it makes you smile,” Rachel said.

Rachel sells and exhibits her fine art originals at the Rachel Pierce Art Gallery located on Periwinkle Way as  well as on her website.
​During her time as a trusted TV news anchor, Rachel gathered a large and supportive fanbase, and her social media following across Facebook, lnstagram and YouTube continues growing day by day, piece by piece.

​She is a prolific painter, and occasionally she livestreams her painting sessions to enthusiastic online audiences, combining her artistic talents with her extensive on-camera experience.

While Rachel plans to continue painting every single day – living a dream she set aside many moons ago – she envisions continued creative collaboration with other innovative artisans and investors on everything from limited edition collections in high-end boutiques and galleries to wearable art, homewares, and accessories available in select department stores.

“I’m so excited for the journey art is taking me on,” Rachel explained. She said all her eggs are in the Sanibel basket now. “I used to do so many events off island, and now I’ve focused everything here. I have three kids in the Sanibel School, I have multiple businesses out here. I love this island. I’m on two boards, a member of Kiwanis and the PTA, and more.”

Rachel sits on the boards of the Charitable Foundation of the Islands and the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation and serves as marketing director for both. “TV and marketing go hand in hand. You feel like you’re always marketing in TV, so I naturally gravitate into those roles out here.”

Rachel grew up in Wisconsin, one of six children. Her sister married a man in Naples when Rachel was in high school so they started coming down all the time. “We spent every holiday down here. They have since broken up, and she was living just outside Shell Point. My parents moved down here 15 years ago.” She went to college in Oklahoma and then became a TV anchor in Wisconsin, then Omaha, DesMoines, and then Southwest Florida. She worked at NBC-2 for six years and quit during Covid.

“I had four kids, including a one-year-old little baby, and my art stuff was taking off,” Rachel said. As soon as she announced on the news that she was leaving, she got a call from “Ding” Darling asking her to be their artist in residence. For almost two years, she served as a volunteer, painted murals, and took people on tours.

“Then I just fell in love with the people, the nature, the way of life out here, a small town where everybody knew everybody and cared about everybody. I told my husband I wanted to move, after we built our big giant dream home in Estero,” Rachel said. “We sold it and bought the building that houses my art gallery. We rented several houses figuring out where we wanted to live, then fixed up the upstairs for a while and lived up there.”

Rachel’s mural at CVS on Tarpon Bay Road. SC photos by Shannen Hayes

They were in the midst of buying a home in Gulf Pines when Hurricane Ian hit. That home didn’t make it, and the gallery was a mess. For now, the family resides in Fort Myers but Rachel spends all her time on Sanibel. “I consider that just a temporary home. Literally, I live on Sanibel.”

Rachel set up an outdoor market at her gallery after Hurricane Ian for island businesses to have a place to sell what they could. “Everybody really cares about each other in the business community, we don’t see ourselves as competitors. All boats float. Everybody is so kind. Adventures in Paradise, MacIntosh Books had things they could sell, and I’ve got my property. Why not? [Council member] Holly Smith got us a permit to do this open market. If you were a business prior to Ian and were up- to-date with your business license, then you could set up and sell. We just asked everybody to be kind so we’re not all selling the same thing, and people were really good about it. We did that for an entire year. At the height we had 18 businesses and nonprofits.”

After a year, Rachel was ready to re-open her gallery. She had lost everything – “the water went way over my head” – and realized they had to build back differently and did epoxy floors and stucco walls. They fared much better through the subsequent hurricanes. Now, though, she said the outdoor market had run its course and did not renew the permit.

It was hard to lose her artwork, though. “You put so much time into it, and then it’s just gone,” she said. She did save any originals and ended up selling every one of them at a discount. She was surprised people wanted to buy them as she was cleaning them up with baby wipes. “I try not to think that much about the art I lost, because I can paint again. I work fast; I think that comes from my TV career. I know how much time I have. I have three kids and four dogs and three businesses, I can’t wait for inspiration to strike.”

The Charitable Foundation of the Islands’ Chip Roach reached out to Rachel to join that board, promising one meeting a month for two hours. “It’s not just one meeting a month for two hours, but that’s okay. When I commit, I’m in it. I don’t do it halfway. CFI is really taking the pulse of the island and realizing the needs here,” she explained. “They help out all the nonprofits and even businesses. What a group of generous, altruistic, talented people wanting the best for this island. It’s wonderful to be a part of it.”

Regarding SCCF, Rachel said that was the board she wanted to be on. “I just love everything they do. That’s one amazing organization. I don’t know if people realize the science they’re doing and how it impacts all of us. I’m really working to get their presence known outside of Southwest Florida,” she said.

Rachel said she is never leaving the area. “Up until we moved here, it was just jumping job markets,” she explained. “My husband said he’d give me one more contract and then we had to move on, and he said he was not living in Florida. After six months, though, he fell in love with Southwest Florida and said, we’re never leaving. I never looked for another TV job.”