*Nina works in the studio as an Artist in Residence with Art for Change in Mussoorie, India in 2023*

Alumni Q&A with science illustrator Nina Grauley

Nina Grauley studied Forest Ecology and Marine Mammals at Au Sable’s Pacific Rim Campus in 2019. She graduated from Covenant College as an Art major and Biology minor in 2020 and received a certificate in Natural Science Illustration from California State University, Monterey Bay in 2022. In 2023 she spent two weeks as an Artist-in-Residence at the Indiana Dunes National Park. Grauley now works as a science illustrator in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Science illustration is such a niche field! How did you get into this field?

When I decided to be an art major, I had given up on trying to do science professionally. My summer at Au Sable blew my mind and reignited my love for science. It lit a fire in a new way.

I spent my senior year trying to figure out how I could integrate science into my art practice. It looked like large scale oil paintings integrating art and science more conceptually. Then I had a conversation with a family members who is a scientist. He talked about how as a scientist he needed people who have that design sensibility. He was talking about data visualization, but that opened the door for me. I did a bit of research and there’s really only one school in the country that teaches science illustration if you’re into plants and ecology—California State University Monterey Bay. There are many schools that teach science illustration for the health sciences.

I applied, but didn’t get in the first time. I spent the next year figuring out what I wanted to do and refining my portfolio. When I got in the next year, that was the path. All these interests that seemed like polar opposites aligned. I graduated and started working as science illustrator. It was this magical journey into this very niche field that fits me perfectly.

How did your Au Sable experience reignite your love for science?

The science courses I took for my minor at Covenant were General Biology 1 and 2. Which were super fun, but also slogging through all the basic concepts. At Au Sable, I got to sit in the forest and talk about trees and mycorrhizal fungi and wrap my arms around trees to get their diameter at breast height. Doing it with my hands and doing it in community with people who loved God, loved science, and loved being out in nature was really cool experience.

Why do you say your interests were polar opposites?

It took a while for me to really figure out that art and science are so deeply connected. Both of them are about finding ways to look at the world more closely.

Science illustration is not something that people know about. For a while I felt like I needed to choose between art or science. People talk about the sides of the brain with one being creative and one being rational. That’s how I always thought about it. Science is this rational, measured thing. Art is about creativity and self-expression. It took a while for me to really figure out that art and science are so deeply connected. Both of them are about finding ways to look at the world more closely.

On your website you mention that “paying attention to the particularities of a community—whether is it made up of plants or people—can be an act of love”. Which seems connected to the Christian call to love our neighbor. How do you practice your faith in relation to the work you do?

I don’t think I’ve struck a balance that I’m completely comfortable with yet. When I’m working with clients on, for example, an illustration for an aquarium exhibit, it seems disconnected officially from my faith. But even if I’m not talking about it with exhibit designers, when I’m researching these corals or fish, I get to see something I will probably never see in person. Wonder and worship are always intertwined in my work. I’m still trying to figure out where my witness sits in that.

I’m really passionate particularly about the church and getting the church to care about nature.

Share more about your passion with the church.

Where I live in Tennessee, so many people in the church view creation as something to be dominated. I go to church with a lot of people who don’t believe in climate change. I feel so deeply that as Christians we should care more about the environment than anybody else, yet so often it seems like we care less.

What does your work look like on a day-to-day basis?

I’m a pretty new illustrator, so functionally I have a couple different jobs. I’m an illustrator, but I also have odd jobs as a barista and a counter worker. I do a lot of networking and sending emails to people doing work I’m interested in saying, “I’m an illustrator. I’m interested in your work. Keep me in mind for the next five years.” It feels like I’m just planting seeds.

I did a big project with the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans recently, to design an 18-foot illustrative panel for their new Gulf corals exhibit that opened in Fall 2024.

What is your process when you get assigned a science illustration job?

The first thing I do is look at lots and lots of things. If I have the ability to see it in person, I’ll go. If not, I’ll look on iNaturalist or any resources I can get my hands on to see all the angles.

For the aquarium project, I learned all about mesophotic coral reefs in the Gulf area, what kind of corals and animals live there. I did preliminary sketches and sent them back and forth with the aquarium, refining the details. I got to talk to an expert most of the time, so if I got a detail missing, they could point it out to say, “Hey, you missed a spine here.” Once I’ve got a big sketch done, it turns into lots and lots of detailed painting. It’s really cool to pay attention to, for example, a little spine on a fish.

On your website you mention that when you zoom in, you see the beauty but also the brokenness. What spiritual practices and disciplines keep you going?

At least once a week I try to actively get out of my house and go spend time in nature. After sitting and staring and being hunched over a painting, it’s good to just breathe. Every time I feel hopeless and despairing, I can walk outside. There’s still beauty in the world. Figuring out how to hold the sadness and beauty in tension has been in many ways is the big overarching theme of my life. Both exist at the same time, even if I can’t explain how that happens or why. Seeing the beauty has been helpful.

Connecting with other people, you see beauty in different ways. For me, it’s looking at plants. For my friend, it’s talking to people in the school she works at where there are really challenging situations every day. Seeing the ways others find hope has been really encouraging to me.

Anything else you want to share?

My time at Au Sable was so much more than a transcript builder or a grade. I cannot tell you what kind of grades I got when I was there. But it was a really wonderful community of people and a really wonderful time to see nature in a new way.

For current students, I encourage you to have a lot of wonder and curiosity about where all your interests can take you. Sometimes you don’t have to sacrifice things that seem like polar opposites.