Growing up in a semi-rural setting in the Bay Area, I was inspired to explore, draw, paint, and write about nature from an early age. In college I majored in biology, while painting and drawing plants as a largely self-taught hobby. My first job after college was art directing an educational CD-ROM about conservation and biodiversity, featuring E.O. Wilson. This experience and others helped me realize that I could actually combine my seemingly conflicting interests in science and art by doing work that communicates science visually.

I completed the graduate program in science illustration at UC Santa Cruz in 2004. I currently work as a staff illustrator at Annual Reviews, a noted scientific publisher, while also doing freelance fine art, illustration, and graphic design. In my fine art I focus primarily on botany. I am most inspired by those plants that are more than merely beautiful subjects, but also have local importance or meaningful stories. Thus I often paint California natives, threatened species, and culturally or medicinally important plants. Other subjects I depict in my art include birds, insects, landscapes, and ecological processes or relationships.