I was born in Minneapolis and grew up on a farm near Benson, Minnesota. Growing up on a farm certainly nurtured my interest in the natural world; I’ve always loved drawing and being outside.

My parents were always very supportive of everything I wanted to do, always encouraging my interests in art and science. Mom would often buy drawing paper and pencils for me; Dad built a great drawing table board that I still use. When I was a little kid, I would often make drawings of different types of animals and staple the sheets together to make simple books. I would create a book about spiders and one about snakes and so on. I never guessed that I would be doing the same type of work as a career.

(Left: In my studio working on a new drawing)

Dearest GNSI Members,

As we navigate through a season that in North America includes the winter solstice and day with the shortest span of daylight in our calendar year, I am in a reflective mood. Since accepting the honor of serving as President of the Guild this summer, I have enjoyed the challenges and rewards inherent in collaborating with the diverse and rich leadership and expertise that all of you bring to this organization. My every meeting and correspondence has deepened my respect for each of you and broadened my hope for what we are and what we can become.

The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators has three awards with which it can recognize the dedication and long-time efforts of its members. These are:

The Distinguished Service Award (DS): Established in 1994, this award is given to long-term dedicated workers, those who have put in countless hours and have usually served both on the Board and have coordinated conferences or portions of conferences. The award is given after several years of ongoing service on the part of the member.

On September 18th GNSI members and a Smithsonian botanist participated in a panel discussion on the critical role of art used in the pursuit of science. The participants were (GNSI members) Sally Bensusen, Alice Tangerini, Britt Griswold, Diana Marques, along with (botanist) Kenneth Wurdack.

In conjunction with the GNSI 50th anniversary exhibit “Visualize: Art Revealing Science” that was on display at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) gallery, it was a well-attended event that gave all the panelists an opportunity to talk about their careers and about visual science communication at large. It was streamed on Facebook live and the video can be accessed here.

Maeve Doyle, of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI), has written a good article about the process of reconstruction of an invertebrate at the Burgess Shale and the importance of art and the artist in science.

> Artistic reconstruction of Habelia optata by Joanna Liang.

Longtime GNSI member Alice Tangerini is featured in the July issue of the Smithsonian Magazine.

Alice Tangerini’s botanical illustrations all begin the same way: with a seemingly simple line drawing, in which she explores a plant’s features—leaves, seed, stem, perhaps a flower or two. Next, she uses a microscope to investigate her specimen’s tiny hairs and veins, recreating their likeness in delicate lines with the pressure-sensitive pen of an architect or engineer drafter. Tangerini has adopted the tools and the vision of both the artist and scientist for her work, which is, as she describes it, “art in the service of science".

My artist origin story takes a form I think is fairly common for scientific illustrators. I grew up in Seattle with parents who didn’t study science, and knew little about art, but encouraged my interest in both. In our household, you could maintain a concentrated area of chaos in some corner by saying “don’t touch that, I’m in the middle of a project,” and my brothers and I usually each had several projects going at any given time, ranging from painting to rebuilding machines bought from the thrift store.

My family loved nature, and we enjoyed camping, hiking and outdoor sports. Travel was also a priority, and a few times during childhood we were pulled out of school for months at a time for “sabbaticals,” which profoundly impacted my goals for adult life.

I’ve always been inquisitive and fascinated by nature. I would spend many hours drawing as a child but, despite my interest in nature, I never thought to draw it. Instead, I spent my time reading and drawing Marvel Comics superheroes. Being the son of immigrant parents, I was encouraged to pursue a career that was stable and with a steady income; they didn’t want their son to become a struggling artist. So I set my sights on science with the hopes of going to medical school.

In my senior year in high school, my biology teacher noticed that I used drawings to record my observations in labs and mentioned that some people made a living from illustrating scientific concepts. Looking back now I’m shocked that I didn’t even consider a career in scientific illustration. I guess I thought since this vocation involved art, it would be a hard sell to my parents. So I put it out of my mind. 

Visit the Database of Science Illustrators 1450-1950, active since 2011, to find information about over 10400 illustrators active in natural history, medicine, and technology, in more than 100 countries, between 1450 and 1950.

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”  
~Frank Lloyd Wright

Like so many artists and so many more scientific illustrators, I have spent my lifetime wondrously inspired by the natural world. The path to my current career in illustration has been somewhat roundabout, and due to a lack of formal training in the sciences, I will likely always suffer from a little impostor syndrome when labeled a scientific illustrator. Nonetheless, nature has been a consistent guide throughout my life and work, and I have found a remarkably broad audience for my particular style. I am grateful daily for my role as an image maker and storyteller of natural histories.

I was educated to be an illustrator in the old school tradition, and even though the professors did not come to class wearing academic robes and require us to rise to attention when they entered the room, I am certain they all entertained such fantasies. It was rigorous training, long before computers, but even though digital and electronic advances have greatly impacted the printing process and added new dimensions to illustration, much of what was taught remains relevant. For example, the development of a preliminary drawing is still the first step in creating a scientifically accurate illustration. They may be called working drawings, sketches, final sketches, or preliminary drawings but throughout the literature, they are always identified as the start of the illustration.

In addition to working as a professional illustrator, I also teach drawing classes but the students are not, as we were back at the university, a captive audience agreeing to be there for a lengthy period of time, pay a lot of money, and eventually work in the field. My classes are part of educational outreach programs and the participants do not have either the time for rigorous training or the inclination to become professional illustrators. They are there to learn about nature drawing as a means of enjoyment. 

Congratulations to ALL the GNSI members* who claimed a spot in the Focus On Nature XIV exhibit. And congratulation to those who received a Jury award!
http://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/fon/exhibitions/index.html

Longtime GNSI member Alice Tangerini discusses botanical illustration with writer Cheryl Corson in a local Washington DC news outlet:

The West Wing of the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany in the National Museum of Natural History houses 4.8 million dried pressed plants, the oldest of which was collected in the 1500s. Capitol Hill resident Alice Tangerini has drawn well over 1,000 of them in her role as the museum’s botanical illustrator. Her illustrations appear in scientific journals published worldwide and may be seen in the Smithsonian’s online Catalog of Botanical Illustrations: http://botany.si.edu/botart/artistGallery.cfm?myArtist=Tangerini,%20A.

I love remembering two things from my childhood. One, there was never enough drawing paper and two, I treasured hearing my parents say, “We had a young daughter who liked science and we didn’t quite know what to do with her other than encouraging her.” What a gift!

I am happy for the chance to share with you some of my professional experiences demonstrating things I feel a passion for as well as ones that have impacted my professional life.

An interview by Audrey Freudenberg with artist Sharon Birzer.

AF: Sharon, Five Fingers Lighthouse in Frederick Sound, S.E. Alaska, is by definition, off the beaten track. How did you find yourself there?

> Photo of Five Fingers Lighthouse with breaching Humpback whale in the foreground, © 2014 Jane Ruffin

The Arts District Episode 424 (Rocky Mountain PBS TV station, first aired 5/5/2016), features the School of Botanical Art and Illustration (SBAI) at Denver Botanic Gardens in Denver, Colorado. The segment includes interviews with the director of SBAI, Dr. Mervi Hjelmroos-Koski and one of the Artist-in-Residence, Ikumi Kayama (AIR Aug-Sep 2015); both are members of GNSI. The segment stresses the importance of bringing art and science together to create botanical illustrations and learning how to see to depict nature realistically.

Watch the segment (6:30 min.) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRoNG4ckSZ4

You may remember the first installment of my story (included in the Journal of Natural Science Illustration 2013, number 1). After attending the GNSI Summer Workshop at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute in Hastings, MI, I realized Science Illustration was the career for me. I finished my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto and enrolled in the Science Illustration program at Monterey Bay. Now on to Part II!

After my time in the Science Illustration program in Monterey Bay, California, I completed two internships—one in the Herpetology Department at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, and the other in the Entomology Lab at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. At the same time, I worked on a project illustrating an article on cardiovascular health associated with Scientific American and continued to accept commissions and develop my portfolio. That summer, I decided to try to pursue illustrating science in the even more specialized field of medical art. I ended up applying to the MSc in Medical Art program at the University of Dundee, Scotland, after researching a number of schools around the world. With a renowned Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, the University of Dundee boasted a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education—what better opportunity to study and travel to the U.K.? Before I knew it, I was accepted and I was flying across The Pond to my new home for a year.