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UC Santa Cruz Other Recent Work Title Teaching is New Every Day: An Oral History of Science Illustration Teacher-Administrators Jenny Keller and Ann Caudle Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/47v1f16m Authors Reti, Irene H. Keller, Jenny Caudle, Ann Publication Date 2018-01-17 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Teaching Is New Every Day: An Oral History of Science Illustration Teacher-Administrators Jenny Keller and Ann Caudle Interviewed by Sarah Rabkin Edited by Sarah Rabkin and Irene Reti Santa Cruz University of California, Santa Cruz University Library 2018 This oral history is covered by copyright agreements between Jennifer Keller dated December 1, 2017; and Ann Caudle, dated December 5, 2017, and the Regents of the University of California. Under “fair use” standards, excerpts of up to six hundred words (per interview) may be quoted without the University Library’s permission as long as the materials are properly cited. Quotations of more than six hundred words require the written permission of the Head of Special Collections and Archives and a proper citation and may also require a fee. Under certain circumstances, not-for-profit users may be granted a waiver of the fee. For permission contact: Irene Reti [email protected] or Regional History Project, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064. Phone: 831-459-2847. Jenny Keller (R) with Science Illustration students Natalie Renier (L) and Lindsey Kernodle (R). Courtesy: Science Illustration Program. Ann Caudle Leading a Science Illustration Critique Session. Photo by Jennifer Keller. Contents Introduction 1 Family History 4 First Trip to the Sierra Nevada 16 High School 20 Exchange Student in South Africa 23 More Early History 32 Coming to UC Santa Cruz as a Student 35 Studying Art at UC Santa Cruz 39 Studying Science Illustration at UC Santa Cruz 45 Studying Lithography 52 The Narrative Evaluation System 58 Natural History Field Quarter and Kenneth Norris 63 Working with Graphic Services at UC Santa Cruz 80 Illustrating Ken Norris’s Dolphin Days 86 Four Corners School of Outdoor Education 90 THE GRADUATE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN SCIENCE ILLUSTRATION 94 Genesis of the Program 94 Prospective Students 100 Prospective Students 105 Curriculum 107 Guest Instructors 120 Changing Affiliations and Locations 123 Teaching History of Science Illustration 127 Moving to UC Extension 134 A New Home at California State University, Monterey Bay 141 Working as a Freelance Science Illustrator 147 Part II: ANN CAUDLE AND JENNY KELLER 164 Majoring in Art at UC Santa Cruz 164 Teaching for the Science Illustration Program 167 The Birth of a Collaboration 169 Ann Caudle: Teaching Science Communication 171 Internship Program 184 Annual Science Illustration Exhibit 198 The Impact of Social Media 214 The March for Science 218 More on the History of Science Illustration course 221 Administrative Issues 223 Final Reflections 227 Teaching is New Every Day: Jenny Keller and Ann Caudle 1 Introduction Many Monterey Bay Area residents learn of the Science Illustration Certificate Program through its popular annual public exhibit of breathtaking student work. Internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious training platforms of its kind, this postgraduate curriculum prepares students with backgrounds in art and/or science to be professional visual communicators about scientific subjects. The year-long program involves a rigorous curriculum of classroom and studio work, guest presentations and field trips, followed by ten or more weeks of internship. Graduates work as freelance and staff illustrators for hundreds of organizations, including zoos, aquaria, museums and botanical gardens, public and private research institutes and public agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and publications such as Scientific American and National Geographic. UC Santa Cruz alumnae Jenny Keller and Ann Caudle have built, administered and taught in the Science Illustration Certificate Program since helping to establish it in the 1980s under the auspices of UCSC’s Graduate Program in Science Communication. They presided over the illustration program’s eventual migration from campus to UCSC Extension’s classroom facility in downtown Santa Cruz, and later to their current institutional home: the College of Science at California State University, Monterey Bay. In this oral history, Keller and Caudle describe the creation and evolution of the certificate program as well as their approaches to science communication, art and illustration, teaching and administration. I interviewed Jenny Keller on three occasions in June 2017; Ann Caudle joined us for a fourth interview on June 28th. Keller’s portion of the oral history contains several references to experiences shared with me. Jenny Keller and I met in the mid-1980s at UCSC. Keller had just earned her undergraduate degree and was beginning to teach science illustration courses on campus; I had recently completed the writing-and-editing track of the Graduate Program in Science Communication and had stayed on to study illustration, teach undergraduate writing courses and edit the program’s flagship publication, Science Notes from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Our shared interests led in the early 1990s to “Reflections on the San Juan: A River Journal,” a teaching collaboration that took place in southeastern Utah during three consecutive Junes. In 1994, I took Teaching is New Every Day: Jenny Keller and Ann Caudle 2 Keller’s field sketching course at UCSC; in 1996 we helped inaugurate what became an annual five-day gathering of keepers of illustrated natural-history field journals—a group whose work was showcased in a 2010 exhibit at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque. Keller recollects her early engagement with art and the natural world and describes the undergraduate studies that led her to create an individual major in natural science illustration at UCSC. As a student she took special inspiration from coursework with founding faculty member Jasper Rose and science illustrators Chris Carothers and Pieter Folkens, work-study positions at the UCSC Arboretum and the campus Publications and Graphic Services departments, and a spring quarter exploring California habitats in the Natural History Field Quarter with instructors Ken Norris and Steve Gliessman. Ann Caudle recounts some of her experiences as an undergraduate art major at UCSC, including the support and instruction she received from faculty member Hardy Hanson. After graduating in 1971, Caudle worked as a freelance illustrator for magazines, eventually taking on contract work for the Monterey Bay Aquarium while that institution was preparing to open its doors. She was invited by Science Communication Program director John Wilkes to join the science illustration faculty at UCSC in 1986, and shortly afterward took on the mantle of program director. At this point the oral history becomes a lively conversation between Keller and Caudle, suffused with their palpable delight in each other’s company over three collegial decades. Keller’s and Caudle’s accounts of their experiences as both students and teachers are peppered with trenchant observations about pedagogy and learning. Their work entails not only helping graduate students master a variety of techniques for illustrating scientific concepts, but also coaching them in strategies for succeeding in a challenging career. It is clear from both women’s remarks about this work that, notwithstanding their self-professed shyness, they are master teachers, channeling as much enthusiasm, expertise, generosity and creative insight into instructing others as into the making of their own art and illustration. The oral history was transcribed by Irene Reti, director of the Regional History Project, who also worked closely with both Keller and Caudle on the final editing and production. Thank you to Jenny Keller and Ann Caudle for their meticulous review of Teaching is New Every Day: Jenny Keller and Ann Caudle 3 the transcripts, and for providing the photos included here. Copies of this volume are on deposit in Special Collections and in the circulating stacks at the UCSC Library, as well as on the library’s website. The Regional History Project is supported administratively by Teresa Mora, Interim Head of Special Collections and Archives, and University Librarian Elizabeth Cowell. —Sarah Rabkin, Interviewer and Editor, January 12, 2018 Teaching is New Every Day: Jenny Keller and Ann Caudle 4 Family History Rabkin: This is Sarah Rabkin and I am with Jenny Keller at her house in Santa Cruz, [California] on Wednesday, June 21, 2017. We are here to begin the first in our series of oral history interviews. So, Jenny, I’ll start with, when and where were you born? Keller: I was born in Redlands, California in 1962, October 4. Rabkin: Tell me about your early days. In particular, I know that you have quite a few artists in your family. Can you tell me a little about that heritage? Keller: Yeah, I have a great-grandmother, a grandmother, a mother, and an older sister, and my mother-in-law who are all, or were, all artists. And it just felt as natural as breathing to be an artist. It got kind of mixed in with the science, in terms of my generation. Both my sister and I are science illustrators of one type. She’s a little bit more 3-D, and I’m a little bit more 2-D. (laughs) But my dad is a scientist, a rocket scientist. He has the T-shirt that says, “As a matter of fact, I am a rocket scientist.” And my mom was always doing art projects. She would just set things up right alongside her projects, for us to do our own work. And it was a really nice kind of setup because she wasn’t saying, “Do what I’m doing,” or, “Help me do what I’m doing.” Her attitude was, “Here’s some stuff.