In March 2019, I was selected to participate in an artist at sea residency hosted by the Hatfield Marine Science Center and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. I spent twelve days onboard the Research Vessel Sikuliaq with a team of researchers from the University of Oregon and Oregon State University who are studying zooplankton in the Northern California Current, off the coasts of Oregon and northern California. My cruise was one of four, two winter and two summer, that are funded by the National Science Foundation. After my time at sea, I got to spend a week at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology reflecting on my residency and making work.

A selection of this work is on view at The Giustina Gallery in Corvallis, OR from Monday, February 3 to Thursday, March 12, 2020. Learn more about the exhibit Marine Food Webs: Drifters and Swimmers.

This is a series of artwork created from this residency. I decided to work in cyanotype, drawing, and mixed media collage to tell the story of plankton. I write more about the residency on my blog. Check out the following posts:

Part 1: Welcome Aboard

Part 2: ISIIS – Imaging Shadows

Part 3: MOCNESS –Plankton up close

Cyanotype is an alternative photographic process that uses ultraviolet light to expose an image and create a cyan-blue print, also called a blueprint. I make drawings on transparent vellum that I expose in the sun to create something that is part photo and part drawing. I depend on the sun’s light and strength to create images of landscapes that are changing because of increased warmth in our climate. The resulting image is both realistic and abstract. Blurry sections and the distinctive cyan color relate to memory, loss, and change.

The work in this series explores watersheds in Alaska, from glaciers to oceans. This series was inspired by time spent around my home in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, as well as working with field scientists with the Juneau Icefield Research Program and aboard the Research Vessel Sikuliaq in the Pacific Ocean (off the coasts of Oregon and California).

Glaciers and oceans are the main characters in the story of climate change that I have come to identify with – Like many Alaskans I’ve seen a visible change in the glaciers near my home in the past ten years. The Root Glacier has gotten so much smaller, that each year our trail to the white ice gets extended. The lake at the toe of the Kennicott Glacier has gotten larger in size as the ice melts, especially as new lakes form and join together. The hydrology of McCarthy Creek has changed completely as the glacier at its’ head has dwindled to the point where it is almost entirely rain-fed. Oceans are warming and rising which effects surrounding landscapes and ecosystems.

Work is available. For Glacier Snapshots, please visit my Etsy Shop, for larger works please contact me.

Nature rubs off on you. These drawings in graphite and colored pencil capture the magical feeling of holding a bird in your hand, both dead and alive. People say “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush”. As a college student, I took a class where we banded migrating birds captured in mist nets. Being able to hold these creatures was such a unique experience that lead me to fall deeper in love with science, studying the natural world, and to become a science illustrator. These drawings capture some of that magic as well as hint at the complex relationship between humans and animals. As much as we may try to be objective observers, we will always rub off on each other.

This is an ongoing series I continue to work on. All work is available. Inquire on the contact tab of the website.

A series of intimate studies that explore the natural history of the environment around me in Alaska. From the glacial riverbed to the boreal forest, these drawings of the landscape up-close tell the story of mini ecological communities in the Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve where I live.

This is series of rock portraits from my findings on the Nizina River, where I live. I am fascinated by the endless variety of colors and textures found in the rocks. The Nizina River drains out of the glaciers and mountains of an interesting section of the Wrangells (really every portion of the Wrangells is interesting) but you can find fossils, geodes, and stones of every color in the rainbow.

I walk around the riverbed full of thousands of rocks and wait until I found one or two that spoke to me. In time they started to seem like family and friends and I would develop relationships with them as I tried to discover their stories within. I became more interested in how the stones were arranged on the page, and how the composition would tell different stories about their relationships. I am interested in the similarities and variations in size, shape, color, and texture.

This series of work is based on cyanotype prints from drawings on vellum. Cyanotype or sun printing is an old photographic process that uses the UV light from the sun to expose an image. I use it to expose negatives of my drawings onto paper.

I use my training as a naturalist and science illustrator to make accurate observations, but I am also interested in the spiritual connection between humans and nature. My goal is to capture the feeling I get when I see a lynx before it disappears into the forest, or when I startle an owl off the road with a kill. It is a feeling that is beautiful, fleeting, mysterious, complex, and also I believe universal.

This series features ink and watercolor work on ledger paper from the Kennecott Mines which operated in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park during the early 1900s. This series has been shown in my solo shows at the Bear Galley in Fairbanks in 2017, at the Copper River Gallery in Cordova in 2018, and at the Wrangell Mountain Transport Office in McCarthy in 2019.

As much as I enjoy illustrating maps (see my Science Illustration section), I also love to use maps in my artwork. Geologic maps, topographic maps, and nautical charts are all works of art in their own right and inform the way we view and interpret the landscape. Many thanks to the USGS for providing quality documents within the public domain.

Through my work, I've spent time with scientists doing research in the field. I am interested in the relationship between the natural world and our modes for understanding it. These series directly addresses that by layering drawings describing plants, animals, rocks, landscapes and the overall experience with being in the field with the data and information that comes out of studying the natural world.

When I make a painting or drawing I spend intense time observing my subjects and distilling their shapes and textures onto the page with pen, paint, and pencil. I use select detail, like a divot in a rock or the shape of a leaf, to create focus and move the eye across the page. I create intimate portraits of inanimate objects including bird nests, clumps of vegetation, and rocks to appreciate the beauty and the story of each thing. I use my training as a naturalist and science illustration to make observations about natural history, but I am also interested in the human connection, and how I project myself onto the world around me. Most of the work in this gallery was born from exploring the land around my home in the Wrangell-St. Elias.

It’s an honor to create site-specific public work to tell the story of a place. If you would like to see more examples of murals I’ve created with communities and schools, please visit my Artist in Schools page.