JOURNAL
Notes from the field, studio and curious places in between.
Observations, work in progress, natural history rabbit holes, expedition stores, ideas and experiences that surface while in the pursuit of creative and curious adventure.
Throw Back Thursday 2010 • Milestones • Drawing Underwater
I've hit a big milestone in my career.
I’m part of a group online exhibition with 12 other artists and writers that have gone to Antarctica, like me, as part of the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists & Writers Program.
#TBT 2010 ~ I was in a group show with 29 other female artists, featuring nature journals called, Drawing on Nature. That was the first time I exhibited my underwater drawings and talked about taking my field sketching tools underwater.
A big shift happened for me between the 2010 exhibit and my current group show, Adequate Earth: Artists and Writers in Antarctica featuring five drawings done underwater in the Ross Sea, Antarctica.
Connecting people with the beauty and wonder of Nature was a epiphany I had in Antarctica in 1992 as a marine ecologist. I dropped out of graduate school and transferred to the Science Communication-Natural Science Illustration Program led by Ann Caudle and Jenny Keller.
I went on to be a designer-illustrator at Monterey Bay Aquarium for 10 years, left for love and have been freelancing ever since, developing and refining many skill sets to best share the Natural World (which is mostly ocean-inspired with the odd bird thrown in).
Field sketching was a wonderful method I learned and it very much engaged my scientific tendencies. I took my field sketching tools underwater starting in 2006, was part of an exhibition about journaling in Nature in 2010 and two weeks ago, an online group exhibition launched featuring 5 (of 22) underwater sketches I did diving in Antarctica transformed into art using ProCreate.
The journey is in no way over...it took almost 30 years for me to get to what I think was my real quest all along, Share the amazing undersea world of Antarctica with others.
Visit my work in Adequate Earth to find out about my transformation.
It's online through May 22nd and beyond. I'll also be giving a presentation with fellow #scicomm #kidlitauthor #kidlitillustrator Karen Romano Young on March 18th.
To see my Antarctic Undersea Illuminations visit: https://www.aawcollective.com/adequate-earth-exhibition
To register for the presentation by Karen and I, Tales and Pictures from Antarctica: Diving under the Ice and Climbing Glaciers for Science Communication, visit: https://www.aawcollective.com/adequate.../tales-and-pictures