Workshop Instructors (back to top)

Karen and Suzanne may already be familiar to you, having team-taught last year's Summer Workshop, Plants and Their Pollinators. Insects: Heroes and Villains will focus on insect anatomy and illustration, basic botanical illustration, and a very controlled watercolor technique. There will be more of an emphasis on field observation and sketching this year, with the goal of creating (and quite possibly finishing) a watercolor illustration of your chosen subjects, plant and insect, as they would interact in nature. There will be two evening workshops featuring local GNSI members who will discuss and demonstrate related illustration topics during the week. This workshop is suitable for people who have good basic drawing and illustration skills through expert illustrators wishing to refresh their abilities and possibly learn a new trick or two.  

Karen Johnson has earned bachelors degrees in both biological illustration and entomology from Iowa State University. She is very enthusiastic about all things insect and is an extremely talented artist and instructor proficient in many mediums including watercolor, pen and ink, and scratchboard. Her artwork has been commissioned by a variety of clients including the Iowa State University Entomology and Veterinary Medicine Departments, Organic Gardening, and the University of Illinois Extension Services. Karen is known by her friends to raise various types of insects, excitedly share unusual finds, and occasionally startle people with insects ready for mounting in her freezer.  

Suzanne Wegener received her bachelors degree in scientific illustration from Northern Illinois University and is preparing to graduate from the Biomedical Visualization program at the University of Illinois, Chicago, this May. She is also a regular instructor and the new Coordinator of Botanical Art Education at The Morton Arboretum! As if all of this wasn't enough, Suzanne has been freelancing since 1989 and is represented by several galleries. Her boundless energy and enthusiasm are contagious, to say the least. Suzanne is very generous with her time and experience, and has scared many houseguests with dead animals in her freezer. 

In The Forest for the Trees, Frank Ippolito will lead participants through the creation of an illustration for use in a (fictitious? We'll see!) calendar, from pencil field sketch to final digital artwork. The goals of this workshop include practice in field sketching, page layout and design, and using Photoshop 6.0.1 to create beautiful and accurate illustrations. This workshop is suitable for people who have intermediate experience using Photoshop, as basic Photoshop illustration skills will not be taught. There will be one or two evening workshops featuring local GNSI members who will discuss and demonstrate related illustration topics during the week. Frank has worked as a scientific illustrator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York for 20 years, and freelances for such clients as Scientific American, The New York Times/Science Times, the New York City Parks Department, and the Audubon Society. Frank continues to teach illustration and animation classes at Fairleigh Dickenson University in Teaneck, NJ, and has served as instructor for a variety of GNSI workshops on natural media and digital techniques. Frank's artwork is amazing, and so is he, although I'm not certain what he keeps in his freezer. I'm sure it's probably scared someone at one time or another.  

The Morton Arboretum (back to top)
Founded in 1922 by Joy Morton (of Morton Salt fame), The Morton Arboretum is a beautiful 1,700 acre "living museum" with over 41,000 curated woody plant representatives from around the United States and the world. Plants are displayed in naturalistic gardens as well as in formal gardens. Resources at the Arboretum include the Sterling Morton Library, which has an extensive collection of botanical art and texts, and the herbarium, which houses over 155,000 pressed and preserved plant specimens. Insects: Heroes and Villains is scheduled to be held in the Botany Lab, which is located on the east side of the Arboretum in the Research Building. The Botany Lab is equipped with dissecting and compound scopes, dissecting tools, lab benches with outlets at each station, and a magnificent view of the hedge garden. The Forest for the Trees will be held in the Arboretum's computer lab, located in the Thornhill Education Center. The lab houses eight PCs equipped with 4 x 5" Wacom tablets, a color laser printer and a CD burner. Dissecting scopes and other lab materials will be available as needed. To learn more about the history of the Arboretum and to see some photographs, please visit the Arboretum web site at www.mortonarb.org.  

The Arboretum is located approximately 30 miles west of Chicago. The city is easily accessed by Metra rail or highway from Lisle. To that end, there are LOTS of things to do in the area! www.metromix.com lists many Chicagoland events and details. Make it a vacation! The Arb does not have lodging on its grounds, but there very good hotels close by. The recommended hotel is the Extended StayAmerica (www.extstay.com) which has a weekly rate of approximately $260. Lisle is not far from Midway and O'Hare airports, and taxis are readily available. Last year several participants teamed up to rent a car, and I will provide participant lists so you may do the same, too! More detailed information about travel and lodging will be sent to all applicants.  

Registration and Fees (back to top)

Insects: Heroes and Villains The registration fee, including the evening technique workshops and weekday lunches, is $400 for GNSI members, $460 for non-members. There is a limit of 15 participants.  

The Forest for the Trees The registration fee for the week, including the evening technique sessions and weekday lunches, is $500 for GNSI members, $560 for non-members. If you wish to bring your own laptop to work on, we have four "positions" available for laptops. Laptop users may discount their tuition by $50. Please have Photoshop 6.0.1 or higher already installed! We will provide 4 x 5" Wacom tablets. There is a limit of 12 participants: eight on Arboretum-supplied computers, four on laptops. Laptop positions are a first-come, first-served basis - once they fill, they're gone!  

Refunds and Cancellations: 90% of the tuition will be refunded if a cancellation notice is received before June 1. Cancellations between June 1 and June 30 will receive a 50% refund; no refunds will be given after July 1. The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, Inc. reserves the right to cancel the workshop if enrollment objectives are not met. In the case of a cancellation, 100% of tuition fees will be refunded.  

Application Form (back to top)

Click here to download the registration form. It is an Acrobat file; if you need Acrobat Reader click here. All applications are due by July 1, 2004.  

Contact Info (back to top)

If you couldn't tell, I respect and admire Karen, Sue and Frank so much on many levels - as professionals, as artists, and as friends. I'm extremely honored to have them instruct the 2004 GNSI Summer Workshop, and encourage everyone who would like to further develop their skills as illustrators to apply for these workshops - they won't disappoint! If you'd like to be mailed a brochure, please email or call me with your street address so that I may send you one (or more - help spread the word!). Contact me at (630) 428-9537, or juliekulak@netzero.com. I hope to hear from you!  

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