SciArt September, Day 24: Numbered (people.) I was thinking of numbers in nature and chose to depict the humble hexagon. Such a satisfying shape and efficient! It’s 120 degree angles allow the to tile a plane without gaps or overlaps. 🐡🎨#sciartseptember2025 #sciart #hexagon #numbered

SciArt September, Day 23: Scouting. Sidewalk botanizing! Scouting for plats in an urban ecosystem can be fun and enlightening. This is Broadleaf Plantain, which is very common in disturbed areas such as sidewalks and driveway edges. 🎨🌱🐡#sciartseptember2025 #sciart #broadleafplantain #botanizing

SciArt September, Day 22: Fellowship (people.) I chose to depict two of the common motifs that appears on Neolithic Trypillian pottery—spirals and waves. 🐡🎨#sciartseptember2025 #sciart #fellowship #spirals #waves #trypillian

Day 25 #SciArtSeptember prompt tireless: 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci Kathleen Lonsdale DBE FRS (née Yardley, 1903-1971) who solved a longstanding #chemistry conundrum of the shape of benzene, here with her drawing of electron density for hexachlorobenzene (green) & model of hexamethylbenzene. Her husband said, 🧵

SciArt September, Day 21: Reef. This is a beautiful Torch Coral (Euphyllia glabresceris.) It is a large-polyped stony coral found in the info-Pacific region. It has tubular tentacles with colorful tips. 🐡🎨🪸#sciartseptember2025 #torchcoral #reef #sciart

SciArt September, Day 20: Glacial. Glacial ice is not just a monolith. It is composed of layers that slowly transform over time through pressure and cold. The layer called firn is snow that has been compacted over a year without summer melting. 🐡🎨#sciartseptember2025 #sciart #glacial #firn

SciArt September, Day 19: Depths. This is a Barreleye fish, which is found in the Pacific Ocean around 2,000 ft down. It has a transparent head with two, glowing green eyes on the top of its head, which help it to spot drifting animals for food. 🎨🐡#barreleyefish #sciart #sciartseptember2025

SciArt September, Day 18: Cenote. The Dotleaf Waterlily thrives in the clear waters of cenotes, which are natural sinkholes in limestone regions, most famously Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. This beautiful flower is widely represented in Mayan art. 🐡🎨🌱 #sciartseptember2025 #dotleafwaterlily #cenote

SciArt September, Day 17: Trawl. This is a Brown Pelican. These birds will follow fishing trawlers and feed opportunistically. This puts them at risk for injury from fishing gear and can interfere with natural foraging habits. 🐡🎨#brownpelican #trawl #sciartseptember2025

Sciart September, Day 16: Rift. Lake Baikal, “The Pearl of Siberia”, formed in the deepest rift valley on Earth. It is the deepest lake, with a max depth of 1,741 meters, and holds approx. 20% of the world’s freshwater volume—the same as all 5 Great Lakes combined! 🎨🐡 #rift #sciartseptember2025

Adding some color to the timeline after all of these drawings. 😊 I am really enjoying seeing these marigolds come on. I didn’t realize until today that they have a beautiful fragrance! Hoping to continue collecting and drying for dye later. 🌱#naturaldye

Day 18 #SciArtSeptember 🧪🐡prompt cenote, or the limestone sinkholes accessible by ground water, a term originally only used for characteristic features in the Yucatán, Mexico & now applied more broadly to karst features anywhere, including in Australia, where fascinating but endangered stygofauna: 🧵

#SciArtSeptember Day 18: Cenote A Mayan tetra, from a photo by Marco Endruweit. - #FishArt #tetra #wildlife #sketchbook

#SciArtSeptember 18 - Cenote Cenotes are sinkholes with unique fish faunas, found all over the world but especially common on the Yukatán Peninsula lining the Chicxulub crater, formed by the asteroid that ended the time of the dinosaurs. Big events still impact the world after millions of years.

THE POWERHOUSE OF THE CELL Very happy with this one Watercolor on paper, matted, 16x20 artologica.etsy.com/listing/4371... 🧪🐡🦠

I watched this green heron hunt in Stewart Park, Ithaca, NY. Sketched in coffee shops using Polychromos colored pencils on Stonehenge paper mounted to aluminum (Legion Paper). Moments after this pose it caught a catfish. Green herons are one of the smallest herons in North America. #birds #sciart

Day 15 #SciArtSeptember prompt spawn. I’m sharing my portrait of self-taught trail-blazing Irish #marineBiologist Maude Delap (1866 – 1953), 1st to successfully breed jellyfish in captivity & document their full lifecycle. 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci She is surrounded by blue jellyfish (Cyanea lamarckii) life 🧵

SciArt September, Day 15: Spawning (water.) There are 1,700+ species of cucumbers, which spawn to reproduce externally. The Leopard Seal Cucumber has beautiful spots, grows up to 2 ft long and is found in the western Indo-Pacific region. 🐡🎨#sciartseptember2025 #leopardseacucumber #spawn

SciArt September, Day 14: Mimic. The Mimic Octopus is an incredible impersonator of up to 18 different marine mammals, including sea snakes, lionfish and flatfish. 🎨🐡🐙 #sciartseptember2025 #mimic #mimicoctopus

SciArt September, Day 13: Bottleneck (species.) The Northern Elephant Seal was hunted nearly to extinction by the late 1800s. The resulting genetic bottleneck makes them more susceptible to disease and environmental changes. 🎨🐡🦭#sciartseptember2025 #bottleneck #northernelephantseal

#SciArtSeptember Day 14: mimic • I'm fascinated by how parts of our anatomy mimics shapes in nature such as the inner ear being shaped like a snail shell. nave of vibration (2017). #SciArt #embroidery

Apparently I needed a crafty Saturday. Using the great instructions from @verseandsip I created a Chinese Thread Book! I have always wanted to make one, and it came together surprisingly well. (Strathmore drawing paper and brown paper.) Have you ever tried to make one? #chinesethreadbook

#SundayFishSketch + #SciArtSeptember Day 14: Mimic A mimic filefish, from a photo by Francois Libert. These devious nuggets mimic the poisonous saddled pufferfish. - #sciart #fish #aquarium

September 10: “tawny” A tawny nurse shark for #sciartseptember #sciart #coralreefs #marinelife #oceanconservation

September 11: “venomous” A blue ring octopus for #sciartseptember #sciart #coralreefs #marinelife

September 13: “bottleneck” I’m muck diving in Tulamben, and it’s the afternoon surface interval. I can draw, or I can nap. So here is a very rough sketch of the late Lonesome George for #sciartseptember #sciart

September 12: “wandering” Here is a quick leatherback turtle sketch for #sciartseptember #sciart #marinelife #coralreefs #oceanconservation

Sciart September, Day 12: Wandering (species.) The humpback whale, weighing up to 40 metric tons, migrates across the globe to feeding areas near the poles and breeding areas near the equator. 🐡🎨🐋#sciartseptember2025 #wandering #humpbackwhale

Sciart September, Day 11: Venomous (species.) The Irukandji jellyfish is a tiny, venomous species found off the coast of Australia and also Florida. It can fire stingers into its prey, causing Irukandji syndrome. 🎨🐡🪼#sciartseptember2025 #venomous #irukandjijellyfish

Sciart September, Day 10: Tawny (species.) Tawny Cottongrass is a sedge that produces fluffy, tan-colored seed heads. It is native to the eastern U.S. and prefers undisturbed wetlands. 🌱🎨🐡#sciartseptember2025 #tawnycottongrass #tawny

SciArt September, Day 9: Vanishing (species.) The Karner Blue Butterfly is an endangered species that lives in pine barrens and oak savannas. Recent efforts in western Michigan have seen the start of a comeback. It feeds only on wild blue lupine. 🎨🐡 #sciartseptember2025 #karnerbluebutterfly

SciArt September, Day 8: Niche (species.) Piping Plovers are an indicator species signaling the health of beaches and shorelines. They are listed as endangered. 🐡🎨#sciartseptember2025 #birds #pipingplover #nichespecies

SciArt September, Day 7: Boreal (lands.) Many kinds of lichen and moss thrive in boreal forests. This is Florke’s Cup Lichen. It has gray/green scales on the columns and bright red, spore structures (apothecia) on the top. 🎨🐡#sciartseptember2025 #boreal #lichen #florkescuplichen

SciArt September, Day 6: Prairie. Prairie ecosystems are dominated by grasslands. Their roots form a dense, fibrous mass, mainly in the first 12”, that help to stabilize the soil. Bison wallow to maintain body temperature and the shallow depressions serve as waterholes. 🐡🦬#sciartseptember2025

SciArt September, Day 5: Corridor. The American Bittern, a wading bird, benefits from the Grand River Coastal Corridor. This corridor in western Michigan is for migratory and overwintering waterfowl, and is critical for marsh bird conservation in the Great Lakes region. 🐡#sciartseptember2025

SciArt September, Day 4: Riverbank. The Buttonbush, (Cephlanthus occidentalis), requires consistent moisture and so thrives on riverbanks and stabilizes soil.They have white, ball-shaped flowers that bloom in mid-summer and attract pollinators. 🌱🐡#sciartseptember2025

#SciArtSeptember 4 - Riverbank Many mammals across the world have evolved an otter-like body shape and lifestyle. Perhaps the oddest and one of the most obscure is the West African giant otter shrew (Potamogale velox). Not an otter, not a shrew, but a distant cousin of elephants!

Sciart September, Day 3: Jewel (Lands prompts.) One of my favorite semiprecious gemstones is the Herkimer Diamond. It is actually a double-terminated quartz with natural facets found in the dolomite rocks of the Mohawk Valley of New York. #sciartseptember2025 #herkimerdiamonds #quartz 🐡💎

SciArt September-Day 2: Canopy (Lands prompt.) This made me think of trees and the phenomenon of crown shyness. Some trees will allow a gap around their crown, keeping it from touching nearby trees. This may be to allow light through to the forest floor. 🌳🐡#sciartseptember2025 #canopy #crownshyness

Sciart September-Day 1: Islet (Lands prompts.) This is Palmyra Atoll, a National Wildlife Refuge located in the central Pacific. It consists of a circular string of about 26 islets and is a unique place to study coral reefs. Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. #islet #sciartseptember2025 🪸🏝️

Can’t wait!

Some beauties popping up in the tree stump out back. 🍄🌱

The sky was like a painting after a storm went through right around sunset. #sunsetsky ☁️

A beautiful summer day up @matthaeinichols with an abundance of blooms! #summerflowers #botanicalgarden

Beautiful full moon tonight. #sturgeonmoon 🌕

So I picked up a tulip tree pod a couple of weeks ago on a walk. It was completely closed up. Forgot all about it and looked today—it opened up! Such a pretty form. #tuliptreepod 🌱

Also got to see some of the beautiful, late summer treats at the garden. Butterflies, hummingbird moths, and lots of flowers! 🌱

After seeing a post online, we had to make a run up to the garden to see the new baby massasauga rattlesnakes! One took up residence in a drainage pipe in the Great Lakes Garden and it gave birth this week! It is cordoned off, but so cool to see so close. #massasaugarattlesnake 🌱🐍

Saw some wildlife right outside, did some beach combing, a day-trip to Charleston, and a stop at New River Gorge, WV on the way home. A great trip!

Returned from a beautiful week in Myrtle Beach, SC, including a visit to one of my favorite places, Brookgreen Gardens! #southcarolina #brookgreengardens 🌱