Projects and Events

During my time as and Education and Outreach Steward with the Lake Champlain Basin Program, I worked on a variety of different projects to help support their education and outreach materials. I am so thankful for this opportunity to combine my Illustration skills with watershed and environmental education. The materials I created include:

2024 -“What is a Watershed” Social Media Series and Educational Zine

2024 - “What Causes a Bloom: Cyanobacteria” - Social Media Series and Educational Zine 

2024 - Adirondack Mountains Mural for Resource Room 

2024 - Series of Coloring Pages for Resource Room (7)

2024 - Champ Illustration for Resource Room

2024 - Food Chain Illustration for Resource Room Discovery Cabinet

2024 - Picnic Lunch Box Game Illustrated Cards

2024 - Lake Species: Naturalist Illustration Workshop

2024 - Watershed Model Pieces Insert Illustrations

2024 - Rachel Pierson Portrait for CVNHP 250th project. 

2024 - Instagram Reels - Biking in the Watershed, Missisquoi NWR, Indigenous People's Day 

Since January, I have been working on creating my college capstone project: "Pollinator Garden Kiosk: Biodiversity on the Champlain College Campus". My Idea was to create a trailhead Inspired kiosk to Install at our campus pollinator garden, to share the beauty of the species that call It home through my Illustrations, as well as share the ecological Importance of these greenspaces In urban settings. 

For my capstone show, I constructed a wooden kiosk decorated with floral garland and painted goldenrods to Invite the outdoors Into the Inside gallery space. The kiosk featured an 18x24 species poster of my colored pencil Illustrations. Some of the species featured Include a yellow bellied sapsucker, eastern cottontail rabbit, purple coneflower, American goldfinch, and monarch butterfly. All of which are species I have personally observed In the garden throughout my time at Champlain. My Illustrations capture the beauty of our local flora and fauna with a goal to get viewers to connect with the biodiversity that surrounds them. On the back of the kiosk Is an Informational text piece which highlights the ecological Importance of pollinator gardens, biodiversity and extinction, the human and nature relationship, and a land acknowledgment. There was also a space for visitors of opening night to take some stickers I made of my Illustrations which was definitely a big hit! 

I would like to thank my professor Al Larsen for all his help and guidance throughout the creation of this piece, as well as Holly Francis, Kristin Wolf, and the Green Revolving Fund who will be helping me install a permanent kiosk at the pollinator garden for generations of students to use In showcasing their own projects.  

Images of the permanent installation of the trailhead kiosk! It Is located behind Perry Hall at 251 S Willard St, Burlington, VT 05401. 

On Friday September 8th I had my very first table at an Art Show, which was the Burlington VT 2023 Art Hop celebration. I handmade and printed over 145 stickers, 50 prints, and 45 magnets all of my own original naturalist artwork. It was an Incredible experience, and I nearly sold out! Getting to share my love of wildlife, art, and conservation with so many people who stopped by my table to purchase my creations or just chat. Thank you dearly to the Erickson family and everyone else who made It possible!

This project Is a pamphlet which features a collection of my naturalist illustrations depicting some of the flora and fauna on Champlain College’s campus, specifically in the Pollinator Garden and Apiary. The drawings are paired with detailed information about the species, in addition to a message of urgency regarding the need to protect biodiversity here at Champlain and around the world. The piece itself, my process of creating it, and ways in which the pamphlet created socially engaged art conversations was on display in the Fletcher Free Library on Wednesday, November 30th, 2022.

 This project is a slideshow presentation and detailed field report about my findings regarding birds at Leddy Park and Beach in Burlington, Vermont. I conducted bird count surveys at Leddy where I noticed a stunning collection of species which I then created naturalist Illustrations of for my final presentation. It was my goal to capture the beauty and liveliness of what some may consider to be ordinary birds, I wanted to highlight how extraordinary they are and encourage viewers to notice birds and natural places In hopes to bring awareness to conservation and environmental advocacy. 

 “My Nana’s Backyard” is a short children’s book that I wrote and illustrated about nature and wildlife. It contains six illustrations I hand painted depicting northern cardinals, an eastern chipmunk, an american toad, bumblebees and hydrangeas, a red-tailed hawk, and white tailed deer. The book is in a way autobiographical since it represents my experiences growing up in a suburb surrounded by wildlife, but it is also supposed be an informational/introductory to loving wildlife book; meant to invoke curiosity in the reader to explore their own backyards and learn more about the wildlife and nature that they are surrounded by.