ART and Its Importance In Science

I am a huge advocate for incorporating art into the scientific field. Not only can art help simplify difficult-to-understand topics, but it can also emphasize certain characteristics that may be lacking or impossible to capture in photographs, such as an organism’s color or specific behavior. Illustrations can also help explain scientific ideas to colleagues and non-expert audiences alike, or be used in figures for scientific presentations and papers. I believe art is an important way we as scientists can better disseminate our research to others in our field and to the general public.

 

Illustrations Commissioned and Used in Other Scientific Publications

Jeffries, D. L., Mee, J. A., & Peichel, C. L. (2022). Identification of a candidate sex determination gene in Culaea inconstans suggests convergent recruitment of an Amh duplicate in two lineages of stickleback. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 00, 1–13.

Burress, E. D., Piálek, L., Casciotta, J., Almirón, A., & Říčan, O. (2022). Rapid Parallel Morphological and Mechanical Diversification of South American Pike Cichlids (Crenicichla). Systematic Biology. syac018.

 

Webpages and Articles

Importance of art in science

My Fisheries Blog tutorial on ‘How to Draw a Fish’

Time lapse video and news story about my art

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

 

INFOGRAPHICS CREATED FOR OUTREACH & EDUCATION


#SUNDAYFISHSKETCH

A fish sketch from almost every Sunday since October 23, 2016. I created the #SundayFishSketch on Twitter as a personal project to hone my art skills as a fish biologist. This hashtag now lures like-minded Twitter users around the world — more than 100,000 of them each week, that view, share, and contribute to this fish artistic community.

Media about the #SundayFishSketch

Fisheries Blog post on the #SundayFishSketch

ADDITIONAL ART PIECES