Rizzo is the first SMCM alumni resident (’02) of the Artist House program, and is completing her graduate work at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the Science Communication Department with a focus is in scientific illustration. A native of Maryland, Rizzo has long been interested in the intersections of art and science. As a high school student she participated in the Global Ecology Studies Program at Poolesville High School, and while at St. Mary’s College of Maryland majored in both studio art and biology. Her studies included the Scientific Illustration course taught by Professors Sue Johnson and Chris Tanner, and later in her SMCM career she served at the Teaching Assistant for that course. While at SMCM she created illustrations for the Slack Water issue on the Oyster Wars of the Chesapeake Bay and illustrations for Dr. Walter Hatch’s papers on a new Australian soft coral species. In 2001 she was an intern at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA and participated in the natural illustration summer program at the Humboldt Field Institute in Steuben, ME. She creates her artwork in traditional scientific illustration drawing mediums of pencil and ink, while also pursuing newer digital techniques. Residency plans include completing scientific illustrations for the St. Mary’s River Project, and beginning new creative work using digital technologies.
Department of Art > Uncategorized > Katherine Rizzo, visual artist, June 30 – July 25, 2003