A powerful way to get people emotionally invested in your research.
Get compelling, accurate, and emotionally resonant imagery that tells the story of your science —without adding another mountain of tasks to your impossibly full calendar.
It’s a story that’s all too familiar.
You’ve crafted a beautiful Broader Impacts section for your grant. You won the grant, but once the dust settles you realize it’s going to be more work than you thought and you’re already struggling to find enough hours in the day.
Your current outreach materials don’t grab people attention the way you want. At your last public talk, you saw someone scrolling through dog pictures on Instagram instead of looking at your presentation.
You’ve spent ages working on a poster for a conference only to watch as everyone, even your department head, stood blocking the view to your poster while sipping wine and talking about so-and-so’s new job.
The consequences for these missed opportunities for outreach are real.
Your energy and enthusiasm for a project get sucked away when you’re only met with blank stares and silence every time you bring it up.
You’re missing out on grant dollars to fund your next round of research and pay the students who rely on you.
Above all, you know your work isn’t making the impact on the world that it should be.
The thing is, you know that your work has value. You’ve dedicated your time, energy, and expertise to study something amazing.
You want to have your energy and enthusiasm for your subject returned when you talk about it … without your audience needing 7+ extra years of schooling and a head full of jargon to be on board.
Imagine someone who didn’t know anything about your work before . . .
Now imagine them learning about what you do and connecting with it on an emotional level.
Because of that connection, they understand why it matters.
So they listen. They tell you their stories.
They see how what you do is connected to the wider world, and to their own experiences.
And now they care.
Because they care, they take action.
Maybe they stop squishing every bug they see.
Maybe they show up at their city council meeting in favor of building more green infrastructure.
Maybe the next time they put their kid to bed they think about Denisovans doing the same thing 300,000 years ago, and they decide to start donating and going to events at their local natural history museum.
Maybe they’re inspired to go to grad school so they can study your field.
Maybe it kicks off the next wave of research that leads to something big.
Great things happen when people feel emotionally connected to science.
I can facilitate that emotional connection to your work, and I can manage the project so that you don’t have to take on more tasks than you need to.
I’m a scientifically literate artist and project manager. My work has been used in classrooms, student workshops, professional presentations, conservation outreach and fundraisers, and I’ve been featured in critically-acclaimed exhibitions connecting art and science education.
All of my favorite moments in my career come down to people: A little girl who’s eyes light up when she hears about the way monarch butterfly migrations mirror her own family’s immigration history. A man brought to tears when he realizes the natural treasures in his Midwest state are so much more beautiful than he thought. The fiery passion of an activist re-ignited when she sees other people talking about native plant conservation with the love and care it deserves. A college student gasping in awe when she fully realizes the complex geology of her own planet, and decides to go to grad school after all.
You are an expert in your field of research. You deserve to work with an expert creative who can showcase why your work matters.
“Rhea’s work is the most sought-after artwork the Alliance enjoys.”
Luke Kloberdanz, Ice Age Trail Alliance
“Rhea met me with the same energy that I brought… and saw so many connections I didn’t even think about! They have a scientist’s analytical mind, not just a creative one.”
Anna Monfils, Central Michigan University
The Process:
We discuss your work and your outreach goals.
I send you a project proposal based on your needs.
Once we have a plan we’re both happy with, I start learning everything I can about what you do. I’m happy to use the software and tools you’re already familiar with, like Zotero, to access papers and resources to get up to speed on your work. If you like, I’ll even go out into the field with you or visit your lab to see things first hand.
I will update you with milestones and you’ll have the opportunity to respond and offer fact checking and course correction as I work on the artwork any associated materials.
I’ll produce beautiful, emotionally engaging, and accurate artwork that tells the story of your science. That could range from a single piece to an entire exhibition and more.
Once the work is done, everything gets delivered to you as a convenient set of files that’s easy to incorporate into your own documentation and use in your future presentations.
Example Project:
An Image that Connects
Timeline: 2-3 months
After a few talks and a field visit, we develop a single beautiful and unique image that tells the story of your science with breathtaking emotional power. When visitors to your office see it, they stop in their tracks and say “That’s beautiful! What’s that species? Tell me more about this.” You use the image in your presentations and are thrilled when people outside your field perk up and start thinking about how their work relates to yours.
Our capstone event is a virtual presentation. I present the artwork and walk the audience through the details and story of the image, taking them on a rich and detailed journey of your science and how the topic relates to their lives. After the presentation, questions flood into the chat about your science and how people can be involved.
Example Project:
Artful Human Stories
Timeline: 6-12 months
You want to showcase how different people connect with your topic, whether that’s featuring key experts in sandhill crane conservation, urban beekeeping, or community fishing practices in the Great Lakes. I conduct series of interviews with both experts and laypeople from different communities affected by your research. Each interview gets it’s own beautiful artwork to summarize the speakers’ story and captivate the audience. This rich collection of stories and images are collected in an art exhibition, book, and on your website.
Our capstone event is a formal art exhibition opening with invitations to policymakers, business owners, donors, and activists related your field. After a stirring introductory speech, interviewees and experts alike tell their stories and share ideas about affecting change. This project not only informs people about your work in a new and richly textured way, it also gives you a unique opportunity to start important conversations across a wide range of people.
Example Project:
A Community Painted Mural
Timeline: 12-24 months
We partner with local organizations to create a public mural featuring your topic. The process from design to final paint strokes includes the communities most impacted by the work. The result is a beautiful work of public art that connects people to the natural world and to each other.
Our capstone event is a grand opening ceremony with talks from community leaders sharing the impact of the project—and of your research. The mural becomes a landmark in your community and carries the conversation onward for years to come.
Who I Am
I’m Rhea Ewing, an award winning artist, author, project manager, and science communicator. My work investigates the ways humans find meaning in the natural world. I graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BFA in 2011. Since then I’ve worked with scientists and non-profit organizations big and small in creating images that captivate and inspire audiences. For me, art and science are two sides of the same coin. Both require deep curiosity, a willingness to question, and a need to make meaning of the universe. I’m also a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community and my work is deeply informed by a desire for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.
You and I care about science because we care about the world, our place in it, and what it all means.
One of my favorite moments in my career was an amazing conversation with a woman at an exhibition of my Ancestors series. This was a set of art pieces all about human evolutionary ancestors and relatives, and this woman walked up to me with tears in her eyes.
One piece in particular had caught her eye: Steinheim, which features the skull of an individual who had a brain tumor. While we can never know that individual’s exact subjective experience, we do know that similar tumors in modern humans can cause visual hallucinations, personality changes, and chronic pain.
This piece had a profound effect on her. She had always felt indifferent about human evolution, but now she was moved to tears over someone who lived 250,000+ years ago. It was the first time she had really considered that the story of human evolution isn’t simply one of “Ah yes, now we have fire! Now we have spears!” but that it was also the story of our relationship to chronic pain, mental illness, and caring for one another.
She told me she was putting serious thought into going back to school and thanks to this paleoanthropology was on the table.
That’s the kind of connection that I create with my work. Let’s make that connection happen with your science.
