Nora is fresh face to natural science illustration, joining the field as a mid-life career changer. She graduated from the University of Washington’s Natural Science Illustration program in Spring 2014, where she was voted the “most improved illustrator” by her classmates. She spent most of her career in the high-tech field of geographic information systems and is a Certified GIS Professional (GISP).
Nora has shown her work in various group shows in the Seattle area with her certificate classmates, including at the Burke Museum of Natural History. She is currently working on pieces inspired by the Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge, just a few miles south from where she currently lives in Lincoln City, OR. Her work has been published in the IUCN’s Suiform Soundings and in the juried UW Stratus 2014 Journal of Arts & Writing. She is a member of GNSI Northwest, GNSI Oregon and the GIS Certification Institute.
Nora has yet to find subject matter she has not enjoyed portraying, but she especially enjoys wildlife and botanicals, and likes focusing on intricate details. Her preferred media include watercolor, pen and ink, and graphite, but she also has extensive experience with colored pencils, gouache, and carbon dust.
As the daughter of a foreign service diplomat, she was born in Cali, Colombia and grew up living in countries all around the world. She is comfortable navigating in foreign countries, is conversant in Spanish and can manage in a variety of languages. She is open to foreign assignments.