Alexis Williams, Ottawa, Canada
Director of the Biophilium

As an eco artists, wildlife photographer and writer I enjoy contemplating what defines an individual. Where do I end and you begin? How does my immune system recognise a foreign body, and how does this change from day to day and over a lifetime? Are we actually the same person we were yesterday, or does it just seem that way? 

Looking at organisms that transform radically, or who exist in intimate symbiosis with others, reveals the illusion of a singular self. I find studying biology to be a way to become the things I know are important, valuable, magical by embodying an awareness of the intricacies of living systems and taking the opportunity to celebrate and welcome all of our identities.

In this image I'm listening to bats through an ultra sonic listening device that I buiilt into a set of horns.

Mary Abma, Bright's Grove, Ontario
Biophilium Teacher's Assistant

Mary Abma is a versatile artist who specializes in community-engaged artworks and environmental art. Always up for new challenges, Mary seeks constantly to push the edges of her practice and to learn new skills and information. Her artworks, which consist primarily of idea-based works executed in a variety of artistic forms, explore the theme of “place”. Her work embraces her interest in history, her concern for the environment, her passion for science, and her desire to find visual expression for her insights into the living world and the interconnectedness of systems. Mary’s recent works explore the systems of language and communication within the natural world.

Hong Yang, Brooklyn, NY

I am a painter based in Brooklyn, born and raised in China. My practice is grounded in a love for the natural world. That love took root early in life while foraging for medicinal earthballs in pine forests with my mother, a practitioner of traditional Chinese herbal medicine. Those early experiences shaped how I learned to look—slowly, attentively, and in close proximity to the ground. As an adult, I reconnect with these childhood memories by going on urban mushroom walks with the New York City Mycological Club.

In recent years, I have been developing a body of work focused on the often overlooked forest floor. Some paintings dwell on the quiet rewards revealed through sustained looking—exotic fungi, or the flickering presence of fireflies. Other works explore the act of looking itself. At first, the forest floor appears chaotic: an accumulation of leaves, needles, and organic debris. But as attention slows and begins to attune to the rhythms of biological disorder, perception shifts. A single mushroom emerges, then suddenly many more, transforming confusion into visual recognition.

I see strong analogies between biological metamorphosis and the process of painting itself. This webinar offers a chance to deepen those connections and extend them into future paintings.

Lauren Flinner, Saugus, MA

It is hard for me to explain using words, why I make films, or draw, and why I share everything. I have the compulsive need to understand and to be understood.

With (largely autobiographical) explorations in film/animation, through poems, I can figure things out about myself publicly, not as a way of reaching a final, “correct” way of being, or a static perfection, but to celebrate “the movement between” in its own right.

When I read that the lectures in this series would “attempt to define what it means to be one thing and not another,” I knew this was where I needed to be, because I’ve been marinating in that cognitive dissonance, studying how it manifests in my own body and life in my private filmmaking/animation practice, for over a decade now.

I am inspired by scientific concepts, and in general think words and language are fascinating. This would be a useful learning opportunity and a chance to meet collaborators or at the very least a springboard to continue my artistic research with more grounding in science.

Deana Bada Malony, Chicago, Illinois

Deana Bada Maloney is a multi-medium versed artist and past scientific illustrator who uses ceramic sculpture as the main vehicle to explore the magic and mystery of the natural world. Her work is a deep study of living forms, celebrating the inherent structure of the subject while emphasizing its transcendental presence.

A trained scientific illustrator, Deana graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1990s. Her strong drawing roots are evident in her current ceramic work, where she utilizes a final oxide firing method to capture every mark, giving her sculptures the appearance of 3D drawings.
Inspiration for her pieces is drawn from myths, stories, and cultural beliefs concerning the relationship between animals and nature. Her sculptures often tell a story, reflecting a higher conscience or spiritual presence.

A constant theme running through her work is the visual accountability of “the nature we create.” By incorporating found materials and symbolism, she addresses how animals are adapting to the modern world's waste and pollution. Her pieces offer a blend of humor and sadness, inviting viewers to engage with and take accountability for their individual role in this evolving creation.

Ontological Praxis (Eve Walton), Rockville, MD USA

My work is driven by close observation of movement, navigation, and constraint across materials and living systems. I am interested in how motion becomes legible when it is attended to carefully - through drawing, recording, and simple experimental setups that allow patterns to emerge without forcing interpretation.

Recent projects include studies of plant morphology, fluid flow, and small-scale field observations of insect locomotion. These investigations are translated into visual and auditory artifacts such as drawings, paintings, and sound recordings, treating movement itself as both subject and material. Rather than producing representations, I aim to make traces - paths, flows, and signals that register how organisms and materials respond to their environments.

My practice is informed by training in biology and by ongoing engagement with scientific literature, but it is not illustrative of science. Instead, it operates in the space between observation and abstraction, where attention, constraint, and method shape what can be perceived. I am particularly interested in work that sits at this intersection, where artistic inquiry and scientific thinking overlap without collapsing into explanation.

Through this approach, I treat observation as an active process and making as a way of thinking - one that privileges motion over intention.