Check Out Susan Quinlan’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Quinlan.

Hi Susan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My work as a nature writer and artist traces back to my college education as a wildlife biologist and my ensuing experiences as a wildlife biologist in Alaska.. I felt compelled to share the interesting information I was learning and the incredible beauty and mysteries of the natural world with other people from early on in my career. As part of my work for the Alaska Dept of Fish and Game, I was tasked with field research, but also with developing brochures and school curriculum materials about nature conservation. I used my writing and drawing skills in these tasks.

I eventually realized that I loved communicating the value of nature to others. So I decided to switch from full time employment as a biologist to freelance writing, art, and interpretive work. This led to work on a variety of contract projects including writing magazine articles and books, designing and illustrating interpretive signs, and teaching classes for adults and young people. I also began working a few months of each year as a natural history guide for Lindblad Expeditions. This gave me the wonderful opportunity to travel to, and learn about the ecology of a variety of environments around the world. I had to research and develop presentations about the environments we visited and create small illustrations for daily journal entries and bird and plant lists for guests. This work greatly expanded my knowledge of nature and my drawing skills. A senior naturalist on some of these trips encouraged me to switch from pen and ink artwork to watercolor painting. I had given up on painting in high school due to a summer school teacher’s disparaging remarks to me. So I was a bit surprised when I tried watercolor painting and discovered I could create full color images that got people more interested in the birds and plants we were seeing. That eventually led me to create larger watercolor paintings to share the beauty of Alaska’s birds and wildflowers with others. Encouraged by my friends’ interest in my art, I made prints and cards of my images and mostly sold these, along with my published books, at craft fairs.

A variety of life events led my husband and I to move our family from Alaska back to Colorado (where I was raised and we had both graduated from CSU). To help support our family, I took a job as a database developer and conservation leader for my brother’s outdoor retail company, JAX Mercantile. That work and raising our two daughters sort of took over my life for several years. On the side, however, I continually worked on developing my own small business. I took on small freelance projects, as well as writing manuscripts about nature, and creating art whenever I could find a bit of time. My progress on most projects was often painfully slow, but I kept plodding forward.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Making any progress on my business related objectives while working full time was always a struggle. I have a post-it note on my computer that says, “The biggest mistake is to do nothing because you can only do a little.” That often helped motivate me to do a little even if I only had fifteen minutes to do anything. I also often recited (in my head) a snippet of a poem by Longfellow; “The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” There were definitely many times when I stayed up very late trying to make progress on various business related tasks and projects.

I retired from my full time job about a year and half ago. This has given me more time to work as a naturalist guide and to begin completing some of the projects I have been slowly developing over past years.. It is also allowing me to make more connections with other artists, writers and opportunities.

Despite having comparatively lots more time now, I still don’t feel like I have anywhere near enough time to accomplish everything I want or need to do. Learning how to market my work is my biggest challenge. While I love talking with people face to face and giving presentations, I am basically an introvert and prefer working on my projects, or just being out in nature, to any tasks involved in marketing. Improving my website, adding products to my online store are things I don’t enjoy, and doing social media posts is particularly intimidating to me.. I have to force myself to take on these tasks, whereas I really enjoy researching and writing about new topics and creating new art. However, I have way too many project ideas, and partially completed projects, so I also have to force myself to prioritize and focus to ensure I actually get any of them completed.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Conservation of nature is my ultimate purpose so everything I do and create is related to increasing awareness, appreciation and protection of the biosphere.. I think I am a bit out of the ordinary as a writer of nonfiction books for young readers as I have an educational background and field experience as a wildlife biologist/naturalist in diverse environments, plus I am both a writer and an illustrator. I enjoy teaching and giving presentations about nature to both adults and young people, but I am currently focusing most of my time on writing and art.

My best known books are about ecological connections in nature: “The Case of the Mummified Pigs and Other Mysteries in Nature,” and “The Case of the Monkeys That Fell From the Trees and Other Mysteries in Tropical Nature” both published by Boyds Mills Press, received writing awards, including from the Junior Library Guild, the International Reading Association, and National Science Teaching Association. Awards are great, but what really makes me happy is when I hear a young person, a teacher, or a parent say that they, or their kids, loved reading one of my books. Learning that my recent book: “One Single Species: Why the Connections in Nature Matter” is helping young readers develop a new way of viewing nature encourages me to keep writing.

I consider myself both an illustrator and an artist. As an illustrator, I create images to visually communicate the animals, environments, and ideas presented in accompanying texts. Sometimes that means drawing or painting things that I probably wouldn’t depict otherwise. As an artist, I create images simply to share the joy I get from observing the beauty of nature. I create watercolor and acrylic paintings and fused glass art. Most of these images include either birds or flowers. While I do use my own photos for reference, the images in most of my paintings are essentially renditions of moments in nature that I experienced and captured in my mind. Others represent an amalgamated impression from several experiences in a particular environment.

One of the most frequent comments I hear from people who view my nature art is that it makes them feel happy. I hope that means my art successfully communicates the incredible aesthetic value of nature and possibly encourages people to get out and experience the gifts of nature for themselves.

This year, I am especially happy to have finally gotten my quadtryptic artwork, “Through the Seasons: A Rocky Mountain Front Range Wildflower Garden” into print. I worked on this project in many late night hours over several years. My aim is to communicate that native Colorado shrubs and wildflowers can provide year round beauty in our yards while also helping our native birds and pollinators survive. To supplement this artwork, I wrote a pdf booklet (free to download from my website–https://susanquinlan.com/through-the-seasons/ ) that provides information about all the plants and animals in the art plus resources for anyone interested in native plant gardening along the front range in Colorado.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Though I don’t honestly think of myself as being in any industry, I guess I am in a variety of industries, including books, art, and outdoor education,

I am concerned about the potential negative impacts of AI generated books and art swamping the markets, but I hope that many, if not most, people will always seek out, and prefer, work created by human writers and artists.

More and more consolidation of book publishers has been occurring in recent years. I think this is resulting in less diversity in the kinds of authors, illustrators, and books getting published by big publishers who mainly want to sign authors with big social media followings and potentially massive sales of their books. That makes for a difficult marketplace for introverted authors like me. However, technology has made print on demand, ebooks, and self-publishing alternatives more feasible for individual writers and small publishers.

My goal is to stay focused on continuing to learn more about nature conservation, and creating the best books and art that I can while finding diverse ways to get my art and writing in front of more people, then just see what the future brings.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://susanquinlan.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naturescienceart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/learn.about.nature
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-quinlan-naturalist/

Image Credits
Photo 1 of Susan Quinlan: Bud Lehnhausen

Photo 3 of Susan Quinlan in Antarctica: Kike Calvo

Photo 4 of Susan Quinlan with One Single Species: Bud Lehnhausen