Emily S. Damstra
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emilydamstra.com
Emily S. Damstra
@emilydamstra.com
• Science illustrator, coin designer, native plant gardener, goldenrod enthusiast
• Great Lakes region of N. America
• she/her
emilydamstra.com
Canada Post released this set of 5 #fungi #stamps last week. I'm so pleased to have had the opportunity to illustrate them!
Design by Joce Creative.
More stamp images: www.emilydamstra.com/canada-post-...

#fungifriends #postagestamps #stampcollecting #philately #fungiart #mushrooms #lichens #SciArt
September 3, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Beautiful!
Borrego Springs is beautiful in spring, when blossoms carpet the desert floor and the earth turns green with plant life. This piece captures the peaceful morning light of California's high desert.

Peaceful Light
Oil Painting by Erin Hanson, 2015
48 x 84 in
Original Available

#westernart #dailyart
August 29, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Emily S. Damstra
From paleoart to fine art,
comics to medical illustration,
bioart to space imagery,
explore the rich SciArt ecosystem on Bluesky with the SciArt Starter Pack.

150 artists, plus the entire popular SciArt Feed 🐡.
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August 26, 2025 at 12:35 PM
I really like Bluesky (thanks, @jay.bsky.team) so I hope that a future iteration of its logo might depict a LIVE butterfly. Like bsky's logo, butterflies in popular culture are often shown w/ their wings unnaturally spread as if they are pinned (dead). Details:
www.emilydamstra.com/please-enoug...
Please, enough with the dead butterflies! - Emily S. Damstra
We all have pet peeves, even though there's a lot going on in the world that makes them pretty insignificant. While acknowledging that there are many more
www.emilydamstra.com
March 12, 2025 at 3:47 PM
This #paleoart shows 3 views of the Devonian brachiopod fossil Paraspirifer bownockeri; one is reconstructed w/ some epifauna and boreholes. These are fun to find; they're an impressive size (for brachiopods). I had an excellent specimen to use as a reference for this painting.
#FossilFriday #sciart
February 21, 2025 at 7:01 PM
In this illustration of a false map turtle carapace, I show the scutes on the right side & the underlying bones on the left.
Notice the way that the scutes overlay the bones, so that their edges don't line up. Like a brick wall!
#sciart #herps
February 19, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Canadians are feeling a bit territorial at the moment, so it feels appropriate to share this photo of a 2012 Lucky Loonie. It's the only circulating coin I've designed for 🇨🇦; it was inspired by a scientific paper describing the territorial behaviour of loons.
#numismatics #sciart #coindesign
February 18, 2025 at 3:20 PM
This painting, from a specimen in my yard, features one of many associations between insects & Late goldenrod. Fly larvae (P. atra) induced the plant to form 16 rosette galls, which ornament the stem like green flowers.
#sciart #ontarionativeplants
Original: www.emilydamstra.com/product/late...
February 14, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Though I make a living as an illustrator, I also enjoy writing. So I was delighted when asked to write the foreword to this excellent 2022 book: "100 Greatest Canadian Coins and Tokens" by Harvey B. Richer. Read the foreword here, if you like: www.emilydamstra.com/foreword-to-...

#coins #Canadiana
February 13, 2025 at 2:47 PM
I assume it is Trump's racist/sexist/anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders that prevents the US Mint from celebrating #BlackHistoryMonth this year.
Because of that, I'd like to share this compilation of People of color on US legal tender #coins - curated by my friend Asa:
www.facebook.com/media/set/?v...
February 12, 2025 at 8:32 PM
This is a great thread; lots of eye candy here!
Since algorithms across various social media platforms are making it harder to see what you enjoy, here's a thread of #paleoart I think is underrated or a tad overlooked.
Kicking things off with Sam Milkovits' azhdarchid portrait
February 12, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Margot Lee Shetterly’s book "Hidden Figures" inspired a movie & an Act of Congress to award Congressional Gold Medals to the black women mathematicians who helped win the space race. Here's 1 side of Dorothy Vaughan's medal. About its design: www.emilydamstra.com/dorothy-vaug...
#BlackHistoryMonth
February 11, 2025 at 2:21 PM
I 💜 blastoids. They're the fossils that got me interested in fossils. Specifically, the Mississippian species Pentremites godoni. ~25 yrs ago, I acquired this specimen and, using a microscope, made this pen and ink stipple drawing. Of my own work, it is one of my favorites.
#sciart #FossilFriday
February 7, 2025 at 1:52 PM
I created this digital illustration for an interpretive sign in British Columbia. It features the Blue-grey tail dropper slug (known from only 5 locations in Canada) & the iconic Banana slug. There's quite a size difference! A Douglas fir cone & twig hints at their habitat. #sciart #invertebrates
February 6, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Reposted by Emily S. Damstra
I’m excited about teaching a vertebrate anatomy course this spring for Yale Peabody Museum Natural Science Illustration Program. Students will study, compare and sketch the skeletons and superficial muscles of various vertebrates.
#SciArt#VertebrateAnatomy#AnimalAnatomy#anatomy
February 4, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Emily S. Damstra
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February 4, 2025 at 2:47 AM
This stylish little beetle (3-7 mm) is the Goldenrod Leaf Miner, Microrhopala vittata. I illustrated it as part of project to highlight the fauna associated w/ goldenrod, my favorite wildflower and a biodiversity superhero.

The beetles rely on goldenrod for all of their life stages.

#sciart

1/5 👇
February 3, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Lichens! I illustrated these as Artist-in-Residence @ Glacier Nat'l Park & Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park. One isn't allowed to collect specimens in a NP, so I noted the exact placement of the rocks bearing these specimens, brought them to my cabin to paint, then carefully returned them to their home. #sciart
January 31, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Last fall, I witnessed one of our Front Porch Snakes trying to slip inside its usual hidey hole, only to find that a recent meal had made it too rotund to fit! I didn't realize, until watching this video w/ the sound ⬆️, that I had whispered "You're going to get stuck."
#gartersnake #Yearofthesnake
January 31, 2025 at 3:50 AM
I don't always have access to a specimen when I need to illustrate something, so I was pretty happy to find an excellent specimen of a Western diamondback at the UMich Museum of Zoology's herpetology collection in 2006. This gouache painting shows the rattle, sectioned.
#sciart #snake #Crotalus
January 30, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Using gouache paint, I illustrated these goldenrod stem galls in 2016. I collected each specimen and—w/ some help from @stephenbheard.bsky.social—learned to identify them. There are 7 different types of galls shown. Prints are available w/ or w/out ID key: fineartamerica.com/profiles/emi...
#sciart
January 29, 2025 at 3:41 PM
I drew this Northern paper wasp in 2019, as part of a project to illustrate some of the insects & spiders associated w/ goldenrod. It's one of the most common insects I've seen visiting goldenrod. I think they're handsome. More about the project: www.emilydamstra.com/projects/gol...
#sciart #bugsky
January 28, 2025 at 8:26 PM
I added a couple drawings of darters and a few paintings of gar to my shop, where there's a variety of my original artwork available. If you're in the market for some detailed original
#fishart, shipping is free to most addresses in 🇨🇦 & 🇺🇸:
www.emilydamstra.com/product-cate...
#sciart
#originalart
January 22, 2025 at 2:15 PM
3 years ago this month, the US Mint released into circulation the 1st of 20 American Women Quarters. I was thrilled to have designed that first coin—Maya Angelou—and 3 others: Anna May Wong, Edith Kanaka`ole, & Pauli Murray. These women inspire me, especially in times like these.
#coindesign #coins
January 21, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Emily S. Damstra
Want the audiobook version of "Charles Darwin's Barnacle and David Bowie's Spider"? It's 50% off at the moment and I can assure you, it's worth $10. www.audiobooks.com/p...
1/2
50% OFF Charles Darwin's Barnacle and David Bowie's Spider: How Scientific Names Celebrate Adventurers, Heroes, and Even a Few Scoundrels
An engaging history of the surprising, poignant, and occasionally scandalous stories behind scientific names and their cultural significance. Ever since Carl Linnaeus's binomial system of scientific names was adopted in the eighteenth century, scientists have been eponymously naming organisms in ways that both honor and vilify their namesakes. This charming, informative, and accessible history examines the fascinating stories behind taxonomic nomenclature, from Linnaeus himself naming a small and unpleasant weed after a rival botanist to the recent influx of scientific names based on pop-culture icons—including David Bowie's spider, Frank Zappa's jellyfish, and Beyoncé's fly. Exploring the naming process as an opportunity for scientists to express themselves in creative ways, Stephen B. Heard's fresh approach shows how scientific names function as a window into both the passions and foibles of the scientific community and as a more general indicator of the ways in which humans relate to, and impose order on, the natural world.
www.audiobooks.com
January 21, 2025 at 2:33 PM