News

Recently published

Yungcautnguuq Nunam Qainga Tamarmi/All the Land’s Surface is Medicine, Edible and Medicinal Plants of Southwest Alaska, by Ann Fienup-Riordan (Author), Alice Rearden (Contributor), Marie Meade (Contributor), Kevin Jernigan (Ethnobotanist), Jacqueline Cleveland (Photographer), Sharon Birzer (Illustrator), Richard W Tyler (Illustrator)

2022 Annual Literature Award from The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries
Yungcautnguuq Nunam Qainga Tamarmi, All the Land’s Surface is Medicine has the honor of having been voted the winner of the 2022 Annual Literature Award from The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries.

Educating the Next Generation
As a result of a collaboration with teachers in Alaska, the illustrations
Sharon Birzer created for the book Yungcautnguuq Nunam Qainga Tamarmi, All the Land’s Surface is Medicine are being used in local Alaskan public school districts to aid in teaching the traditional uses of Yup’ik native edible plants and how to identify them by sight.

https://asba-art.org/journal/current-issue

CLASSES

Scientific Illustration
Evergreen State College, Summer, 2022

https://www.evergreen.edu/catalog/offering/introduction-scientific-illustration-35868

FELLOWSHIP

MacFarlane Artist in Residence Fellowship, 2020
University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories, San Juan Island, WA

GRANT

ASBA, BAEE Native Plant Award, 2019
Illustrations will be published in a book by cultural anthropologist Ann Feinup-Riordan documenting Edible and Medicinal Native Plants of Yup’ik Communities in Southwest Alaska. A virtual exhibition of original illustrations at The University of Washington, Center for Urban Horticulture occurred in June, 2020. Please see All the Lands Surface is Medicine.

EXHIBITIONS

Pacific Northwest Botanical Artists
University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture, Miller Library virtual exhibition, 2022

Gathering from the Land
University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture, Miller Library virtual exhibition, June 2020

Focus on Nature XV
Roberson Museum and Science Center, New York, 2019

GNSI and AIMBI Members Exhibit 2019
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Bellingham National 2019, Water’s Edge: Landscape for Today
February 2 – May 19, 2019; Whatcom Museum, Washington

CLASSES

Scientific Illustration
Evergreen State College, Summer, 2020 and 2021

Please see the exhibition, Introduction to Scientific Illustration, 2020

Natural History Illustration 2020
University of Washington, Center for Urban Horticulture

An introduction to the practice of natural science illustration is complemented by critique sessions allowing students to discuss and respond to each other’s work. The focus of this fundamental course is drawing, from gestural sketching to precision rendering of illustrations for scientific purposes. Each student is given the opportunity to render selected subjects in a variety of demonstrated techniques. Currently on hold.

AIGA LINK Workshop

http://thelinkprogram.org/index.php/events/19-october-botanical-illustration-sharon-birzer

RESIDENCY

Voices of the Wilderness artist residency, 2018
US Forest Service, National Park Service and US Fish & Wildlife Service, Alaska

During Summer Solstice of 2018, I was fortunate to experience the wonders of the Tebenkof Bay Wilderness in the Tongass National Forest. We arrived by float plane, and the weather was clear, enabling us to kayak and camp. I spent much of my time exploring with Karen Dillman, a Forest Service ecologist and lichenologist, though the entire crew who supported the mission were amazing. The contrast of pure wilderness versus where I live, in Seattle, was remarkable. There was almost no discernible human impact in this untouched and pristine area of wilderness, except for signs of the native Tlinget inhabitants who once lived there. I observed beautiful and unique life forms at every turn, recording them with photographs and drawings. Karen and I focused on lichens which are an indicator species, meaning their presence or absence indicates air quality. I am grateful for the protection of these priceless and endlessly intriguing untouched areas of land.

FELLOWSHIP

Civita Institute Fellowship, 2017

My fellowship was full of surprises and discoveries as I documented observations of the natural world in a fragile remote Italian hill town. Reached only by foot the remarkable ancient architecture and surrounding canyons of Civita di Bagnoregio in the region of Alto Lazio, Italy are layered with beauty.

https://www.civitainstitute.org/1470/civita-institute-fellows.html