July 6 PA Arts Sunday - Part 1

Our daughter, Julia, has been visiting home since just after graduating from Western Washington University last month. She's an environmental scientist now, but since she was very little, she has loved to create art. She's won several honors and awards for her visual art, at school, and other places including a blue ribbon at the Alaska State Fair for a collage showing a birch tree through the four seasons.

She's shown a lot of talent as a ceramic artist, too, though she hasn't entered much of it in competitions.

The watercolor at top left, is of Siberian irises she clipped from Judy's perennial rock garden the other day.

Below it is a four-seasons ceramic set she did for me back when she was a senior at Colony High School.

A lot of scientific book, paper and web illustration is done these days with computer-assisted or computer-dominated art programs. I'm hoping that in one of her future jobs, she might be able to incorporate her arts talent.

She leaves tonight to take her first job. She'll be working on a team of scientists for the rest of the summer, in the North Cascades Wilderness of Northern Washington State, doing the first survey of the butterfly populations there. Butterflies are a marker kind for evidence of climate change, so Western Washingon University, along with other agencies are gathering data. Next summer, a team will do a similar survey around Mt. Rainier National Park, and the studies will continue to alternate between these two areas, every other year.

I'm encouraging Julia to take a small watercolor and ink set and a small block or tablet in her pack. To paint butterflies.