News
To be published
Wellness and Illness in Yup’k Oral Tradition, UC Press,
Vascular Plants of the South Sound Puget Prairies, The Evergreen State College Press, second ed., 2026. 49 scientific illustrations of grasses.
Diploma RBGE
Diploma Botanical Illustration (distance) with distinction, Royal Botanical College of Edinburgh, Scotland, 2024
Thesis Project: Five Wildflowers of the Garry Oak Ecosystem
Published
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.
Read more here.
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.
CLASSES
Scientific Illustration
Evergreen State College, Summer, through 2026
FELLOWSHIP
MacFarlane Artist in Residence Fellowship, 2020
University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories, San Juan Island, WA
GRANT
Washington Native Plant Society
Education Grant, 2020, created 48 Botanical illustrations for Vascular Plants of the South Sound Prairies, second ed., Frederica Bowcutt and Sarah Hammon
ASBA, BAEE Native Plant Award, 2019
Illustrations for a book by cultural anthropologist Ann Feinup-Riordan documenting Edible and Medicinal Native Plants of Yup’ik Communities in Southwest Alaska. An exhibition occurred of works 6/2020, The University of Washington, Center for Urban Horticulture.
EXHIBITIONS
Flora, Fauna and Funga: Symbiotic Relationships, 2026
Pacific Northwest Botanical Artists
Pacific Northwest Botanical Artists
University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture, Miller Library 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, 2018 – 2026
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
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