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I've spent a lot of my 28 years on this earth throwing myself into my hobbies and interests.
I started with trains and dinosaurs, Pokémon and Beanie Babies and outer space, and definitely had a Disney Princess phase. Blessed with a bountiful public library, I spent most of my free time up until middle school reading about mummies and sharks and ancient history and mythology, playing Neopets and watching anime on the clunky family computer when I got home from swim or soccer practice.
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The first thing I can ever remember wanting to be when I grew up was a firefighter. After that, it was a veterinarian, and then a paleontologist, and then a surgeon, then a biologist, then an illustrator.
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Suffice to say, I ended up with an undergraduate degree in Biology and now teach AP Art History and AP Art and Design at my alma mater, and do my own art freelance on the side. I love teaching, but this point I'm debating whether to continue my career as an educator ad infinitum, go back to school to get a Ph.D in something or other, or to make another painting with lots of leaves in it.
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Despite all of my changing interests, though, art has always been a constant, even if I've never been able to stick with one medium or technique for more than a couple of months at a time. It's fairly common for me to switch even within the week: on Monday it's How to Train Your Dragon fanart for a zine on my iPad, on Wednesday I'm brainstorming ideas for a new pattern because I decided earlier that week that I wanted to draw some diatoms, and by Saturday I'm piecing a 50x60" quilt in my home office. It's a comfortable, organized chaos, and occasionally lucrative when I'm lucky.
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While taking a course in Evolution at Bryn Mawr College in 2014, I created the first of many works in the Soft Biology collection, depicting the fantastical, alien-like creatures fossilized in the 500+ million year-old Burgess Shale. This first work, Cambrian Fauna, would ​begin a series of works that combines by two enduring loves: the arts and the natural world. To this day the Soft Biology collection remains a customer favorite in my Redbubble store.
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Currently, I'm collaborating with Studio 252MYA, a San Francisco-based collective of artists and scientists with the unified mission of creating accessible, scientifically accurate art and design for both the research community and the general public. I've had a lot of fun drawing funky looking prehistoric sharks and brightly colored dinosaurs waving pride flags, and greatly appreciate the 252MYA team (Nick especially) for their patience as I've stumbled my way through rendering scientifically accurate sauropod feet.