April Update
Illustrating a textbook, microbe flash cards, and some local publicity!
Spring is finally here! The birds have returned and the snow is all gone. This morning I found a bumblebee in my boot (thankfully neither of us were hurt and the bee was delivered safely to a nearby flower).
It’s been a busy couple of months since the last update and I have some exciting things to share!
At the beginning of March I was invited as a guest speaker at Økologisk Hadeland’s board meeting. Økologisk Hadeland is a branch of Økologisk Norge, which is an organization focused on sustainable agriculture here in Norway.
For the presentation I used my artwork to give the board members a brief introduction to some of the tiniest members of the soil food web, with a focus on the beauty and complexity of microbial life in soil. My goal was to inspire curiosity about soil life, and offer a reminder of how complex and amazing the soil ecosystem is as they look toward the upcoming growing season.
Illustrating a Regenerative Agriculture Textbook
A few days after my February post I received this message from a new subscriber:
"I am writing a textbook about Regenerative Agriculture from a microbial perspective. Like you, I am enthralled by the world beneath our feet. I would like to pass a love of microbes to those who read my book. I would LOVE to have illustrations like yours in the book. You were recommended to me by Andie Marsh in Austin, Texas. Do you do this type of project?"
- Kathleen Groppe
Andie Marsh is the author of Soil is Sexy, a wonderful newsletter focused on soil health not only from a scientific perspective, but also with a focus on building relationships and community.
Andie and I had been following each other on Instagram already for some time, and when I announced my arrival here on Substack she was one of the first to welcome me into this new platform.
When her friend Kathy told her she was working on a textbook about regenerative agriculture with a focus on microbial life, Andie told her about me and suggested we get in touch to see if I could help with illustrations for the book.
Kathy and I met over Zoom and connected instantly. Nothing brings people together like a passion for a very niche topic!
Kathy has had an impressive career in molecular biology and biodiversity, ranging from California to Switzerland. After moving back to the US, she and her husband bought a ranch in Texas and gradually rehabilitated the land from years of neglect and mismanagement into a thriving ecosystem. She became passionate about regenerative agriculture and soil life, and has decided to make her contribution in the form of a new textbook.
Kathy will be using some of my existing artwork in the book, and has commissioned a set of infographics which I’m actively working on now.
This is my first time working on a textbook and I’m incredibly excited to be part of this project. I can’t wait to share more updates about it along the way!
Featured in Drangedalsposten
I recently had the honour of being featured in our local newspaper, Drangedalsposten! The article gives a little background of how I ended up in Norway drawing microbes. Morten, the journalist, was a lot of fun to talk with and he couldn’t stop commenting on how amazing it was to see what lives in a tiny drop of water!
The article is of course in Norwegian, and it can be found online here, but they were kind enough to give me a PDF to share since it requires a subscription and most of you are not local here.
Soil Microbe Flash Cards
Keisha at Catalyst BioAmendments in California is planning to make flash cards with soil microbes, and I’ve been recruited to help with some of the artwork! I have worked with Keisha in the past and am so looking forward to collaborating again.
Keisha is hoping to feature photos from the community along with her own, so if you’re into microscopy there’s a chance for you to contribute too!
The card decks will have 100 different images of organisms you see in compost and soil with a microscope and each image will have a description of what we are looking at. I have thousands of images but I would love to feature other peoples photos as well. It makes it a little more interesting for me. If you would like to participate, send images over to me at keisha@catalystbioamendnents.com.
The flash cards will be great for educational uses, public outreach, and as a tool for anyone learning to use a microscope to look at soil. I can’t wait to see how they turn out! The project is still in early planning stages, but you can visit Catalyst BioAmendments on Instagram to check for updates and of course I’ll talk about it more later on.
New Commission Price Page
I’ve decided to add a commission price page to my website, Mikroliv.no. Pricing artwork is a challenge, and each project is very different. However, I realized that I myself would probably not feel comfortable reaching out to hire someone with absolutely no idea what their prices might be like. It’s also scary for me to give price estimates when the potential client has no idea what to expect because I don’t know how they might react. I lose sleep over it!
So I decided to go ahead and put some numbers out in the open. I couldn’t exactly do a price list, since every project is so unique, and this doesn’t include every possible type of project I might be open to doing, but it should be enough to get a sense of what to expect.
The new page can be found here, or if you’re on the Mikroliv site just hover over “Info” in the header and you’ll see it in the new dropdown menu option.
Commission Status
I’m fully booked for the moment (woohoo!). The next opportunity to start a new project will likely not come before July, but there could potentially be room for something smaller in the meantime. Either way, if you’re interested in a commission feel free to reach out and we can make a plan. You can reply to the newsletter email, message me here or on Instagram, or send me an email at post@mikroliv.no.
What’s Next
For the the next several weeks I’ll be fully focused on the projects mentioned above, so the next update will most likely come once I’m able to share some more about those.
As I said when I initially started here, I only plan to publish updates when I actually have something to say, instead of pushing myself to create content on a schedule. This approach allows me to focus my energy on producing artwork instead of a “content creation” grind, and so far it has been a tremendous relief to let go of that pressure. It does mean that updates may be infrequent at times, but when they do come they will contain genuine news that I’m excited to share with you.
As always, I appreciate you being here so much! Feel free to reply directly to the newsletter email if you have any thoughts, questions or feedback, or you can write to post@mikroliv.no, or leave a comment below the post on the Substack page.
Thank you so much for reading!
All the best,
Kate
PS: This time I’m sending out the colouring page bonus to paid subscribers as a separate email, instead of duplicating the newsletter and adding it to that version. This is simpler and will prevent any confusion with duplicate posts appearing on the homepage.
Thanks for being patient with me as I’m still working out how to navigate this platform :)
Enjoyed reading this newsletter. Looking forward to having a second colouring page for my collection. Thank you Mom