JANE KIM's Portfolio

The Migrating Mural The Migrating Mural is a collection of murals painted along migration corridors of endangered migratory species. Through the murals, the transient life of these animals can easily be seen and more importantly, appreciated.

As an artist and science illustrator, I hope to connect people to animals that have kept our planet in balance for millions of years -- the type of lasting connection that will help protect them from disappearing forever.

2011 Visual Arts
The Nature of Invention The Nature of Invention explores the way nature has inspired human invention.

It exists in nature first.

The saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) is Critically Endangered and originally inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe zone. They also lived here in North America during the Pleistocene. Today a subspecies is found in one location in Russian and three areas in Kazakhstan. It is now extinct in China and southwestern Mongolia. The Mongolian subspecies is found only in western Mongolia.

The nose of a saiga antelope acts like a furnace, heating the cold, chilling air before reaching the lungs in the winter while filtering out dust in the summer.

This saiga stands proudly atop a furnace in a room with a traditional Kazakh pattern on the wall.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE EXAMPLES OF THE NATURE OF INVENTION! 2011 Visual Arts
Art at The Dump Although I wasn't actually living at The Dump, I was there for four months in 2009 and worked with discarded construction scrap most specifically, materials used to build walls.

Looking beyond the utilitarian definition, a wall's function has true sociological relevance. On the surface, from prehistoric caves to fanciful wallpapers of the twentieth century, we use walls to express ourselves. We introduce color into a white room, hang art or wallpaper, and make a space our own. But in addition to being a place for self-expression, the overwhelming speed at which walls go up is resulting in harmful consequence to our environment being a leading cause of imperilment of species in California. It is exactly this dissonance between sociological necessity of walls and the destructive environmental consequences that I am attracted to. 2009 Visual Arts
Wasted Time - Wasted Heart An installation at the Summit Series headquarters.

Made from old card boxes delivered by UPS and FedEx, a pile started forming in a storage area. I started thinking about circulation -- trash, heart, postage, travel -- and what sort of impact that has on the Earth. 2011 Visual Arts
An Archive of Work: 2005 - present Where would we all be without our past?

This is an archive of my work since 2005.

To be always continued... 2005 - present Visual Arts
Yosemite National Park One of my most memorable experiences.

For three months, I lived in Yosemite National Park and joined field researchers as they studied the Yosemite toad, invertebrates, meadow encroachment, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep and much more.

Never had I been so closely interactive with the natural world every day. 2010 Visual Arts
The Smithsonian Three months of collaboration with biologists of The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

From October 2010 - January 2011, I worked at The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama with three different scientists -- Juan Mate, Alexandra Hiller and Ross Robertson.

With Juan, I worked on a couple of booklets for Coiba National Park, an island in the Pacific that was once used as a penitentiary and has now been protected as a National Park.

A booklet describing the new management plan of the Park
A tablet for fisheries surrounding the park
Diving and snorkeling site maps for a comprehensive dive guide

Alexandra Hiller studies porcellanidae crabs. They are precious tiny crabs with unique anatomy. Although they are called crabs, they're not actually true crabs. If you notice, they have only three legs. Crabs have two arms and four. They use a lot of core strength to sort of grab the substrate and suction themselves. This gives them the ability to crawl along vertical surfaces! They're so cool! Alexandra has been working on an online identification software called CAT -- Computer Automated Taxonomy. Using the provided crab illustrations, identifying characteristics in a clear and attractive way.

In the final month I was there, I worked with ichthyologist, Ross Robertson. Currently, Ross is also working on identification software including an app for Eastern Pacific shorfishes. I'm partial to the gobies which illustrate the very slight differences between the common green banded goby and red-cheeked goby, a new species found in Honduras. 2010 Visual Arts
Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a wonderful program called the Bartels Science Illustration Internship. I was there for 4 months and this is a collection of work created during that period. 2011 Visual Arts
Archive of Science Illustration In 2009, I went to the California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) for a degree in Science Illustration.

I can't speak more highly about my experience there -- professors, classmates, facilities.

This is an archive of some of the work that I did for the program. 2011 Visual Arts
SEED | design to grow good things SEED started 20 years ago as SheGeek Design. Today they are an agency whose clientele create "honest, artisanal or pure food." The goal is to honor the growing shifts towards an environmental movement.

County Line Harvest is primarily a lettuce farm in Petaluma, CA and SEED developed their new brand and look.

I created the lettuce illustrations! 2011 Visual Arts
American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists. They have over 50,000 members from over 135 countries and are focused on spreading scientific information in the fields of geophysics: atmospheric and ocean sciences, solid-Earth sciences, hydrologic sciences, and space sciences.

AGU also hosts a network of blogs - AGU Blogosphere.

I was commissioned to create the blog banners. 2011 Visual Arts
San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers The Conservatory of Flowers holds charming rotating exhibitions and in December of 2007, they put together an exhibition surrounding the function of color in plants and flowers.

The visual theme of the show was a Victorian carnivale and I was commissioned to paint the props that the plants were displayed as well as a cutout for the visitors to take photos with.

This was a pivotal project that shifted my own purpose for making art. I loved that the work I was doing was for education, science and nature. From that point on, I really wanted all my work to have that same purpose. 2007 Visual Arts
The Elements Olive-Route Design is a wonderful little letterpress studio in Berkeley, CA.

You can shop on Etsy for her fine paper cards and art prints.

We collaborated on a set of prints called "The Elements" featuring of course the four elements: earth, water, wind and fire.

Please visit the SHOP section of the site for links and information. 2008 Visual Arts
Products WATERBOX

Florauna Series: KELP

Surfrider Foundation Store: SWELL.COM

Knobby Starfish

Please visit the SHOP section of the site for links and information. Product Design