We recently connected with Emy Daniels and have shared our conversation below.

Emy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I decided to pursue an artistic path very soon after having children. I wanted to be inspiring to my kids and show them it could be done. My mother was a brilliant artist but did not pursue it professionally and instead I saw her do less and less art over time and she was not happy. When I took art classes she would do art with me and I loved seeing her expressing her creativity. My career was in marine biology research for almost a decade. I received an art minor in college but just considered art and music as a hobby. So while my two kids were under 3 I knew I didn’t want to go back to a full time science job. I wanted them to be involved in my art process and business. When my older one was 3, she loved to plein air paint with me and now that she’s a bit older, loves to help sell at art markets too. I have the privilege to pursue this path and want to make the most of it.

Emy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a marine biologist turned artist who loves drawing and painting coastlines and marine animals. I have a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in Biology with a minor in Studio Art from University of California, San Diego. I worked for almost a decade at Scripps Institution of Oceanography from an undergrad lab researcher to a full time research associate in both biological oceanography and marine biology. I’ve been involved in amazing research projects including algal biofuel development and environmental investigation research cruises. While I loved working in the sciences, I have turned full time to art through creating personal artwork, teaching and working on larger art projects all while maintaining themes of marine coastal beauty, diversity, research and sustainability.

I’m really excited about how my business has evolved over the last couple of years. I was the first Artist in Residence at Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) for a year starting the summer of 2023. This gave me the opportunity to merge my background in marine sciences with my art career which I felt had been so separate before. I really enjoy art as a component of science communication. I find it a fun challenge to come up with a visual representation of science that tells the story of the research and process involved, while also being aesthetic and portraying the beauty of our natural world. Each project I’ve worked on is also a deep dive for me to learn new information and skills, which I love, and these new skills get carried into future projects and ideas allowing me to maintain a diversity in types of projects under similar themes of environmental science and outreach.

Most of the clients I work with are universities, government agencies and nonprofits. One kind of service I provide are illustrations that can be purely artwork or more as an infographic where I work with the client on what the overall message is, who the audience is and what information is to be displayed, if any. I have also been working with scientists and managers to draw out their ideas during meetings. This is helpful when a visual representation is needed, such as live drawing a site for an installation and the desired look, location and layout for that exhibit. I do much of this work digitally and files are easily shared throughout the project for quick feedback and check ins.

I have also been teaching a variety of workshops including scientific illustration, nature journaling and visible mending which are beginner friendly for both youth and adults. Some of this teaching is for larger projects like an in-the-works coastal hazards based mural for the Latinx community in Newport, OR which is funded by Cascadia Coastlines and Peoples Hazards Research Hub where I am part of a team working with a group of youth to teach them how to communicate science and develop design ideas through this mural. I am more of a facilitator rather than the artist as I will teach all aspects of mural design and painting and work with the group to create a mural that is relevant to them and their community. I will help as needed to summarize the participant’s design ideas into a cohesive design while keeping to the groups interest and direction.

I feel there is a push right now to include more art within the sciences. Art might be seen from the science perspective as being undisciplined, intangible and ethereal but it’s precisely these reasons that art touches people at their core. Art transmits a message without words and instead uses emotions, inspiration, awe and sometimes even an electric a-ha moment that transcends the limits of education and language which science relies so heavily on. I feel that I am in a unique position to combine these two disciplines of art and science and love working with different organizations to complete projects or even just have a conversation as I did this past summer in a plenary talk at the Pacific Northwest National Lab’s Advancing Energy Futures Through Art workshop.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think we have to remember that art and play are really important to developing critical thinking skills, problem solving and patience through practice, among other things. The process of art and play should be the focus where expectations are kept to a minimum and critiques or evaluations are used to build up the process and encourage further experimentation. This is so true for young children as they get to know the world around them. As adults, we too need to have more right brained experimentation that helps us process and link new and old ideas that our left brained logic can’t linearly connect. So let’s let go of expectations and outcomes while finding new ways to evaluate the process of art and science in order for innovative ideas to be generated.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

What I’ve really loved about setting out on this creative journey is the time I have to connect to other people in my community. Many of these people are artists on the side, as I was, and I honestly believe we are all artists with our own individual interests and medium. So an unexpected mission of my creative journey has been to inspire, encourage and help others create, show and/or incorporate art into their lives and workplaces. I love having coffee meetings with people as part of my work week and it’s so much fun when we come up with ways to connect things happening in our small city or dream up big project ideas. One example where I have helped with local art connections is with John Skamser, a fishing net maker, who has been helping me on an artwork depicting fisheries research. I learned that he was trained as a weaver, even though he hadn’t done any in over 30 years. At the same time, I have been on the planning team for the Fiber Arts Fest (Jan 2024) at the Visual Arts Center in Newport, OR and we worked him into the show. I spent some time with him talking about his life history so I could help him with an artist bio for the show. I also helped him navigate the required forms for the exhibits. The show opening is days away at the time of writing and I’m so excited to watch him experience his amazing weavings up in the exhibit.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.emydaniels.com
• Instagram: @EmyDanielsArt
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emydaniels/

Image Credits

Emy Daniels