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✹ welcome to the newsletter: an occasional bushel of works, news, + more ✹
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Howdy!Welcome to the third newsletter, and thank you for being here. It’s been a while! There is plenty to share, but first things first: Happy Pollinator Month! I am celebrating with a print release of my most recent work: ✹ Carrier Bag Theory of Conservation Preorders for prints and posters are now open through Wednesday, June 30. This piece was created for the Creature Conserve exhibition Re-Inhabiting Conservation: Using Art to Bring Wildlife Conservation Closer to Home. It is inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction (rooted in Elizabeth Fisher’s theory of evolution) which reframes human history as a story of gathering and tending to life rather than one of heroic conquest. Attention is shifted from familiar pollinator icons (adult moths and butterflies) and centers caterpillars with their host plants as “carrier bags” of future ecosystems: organisms whose survival and interaction make pollination, and the consequential radiation of life, possible. These small systems contain the fate of large ones. Conservation is not always heroic spectacle; it is slow and patient attention, carried in a bundle as small as a caterpillar. Le Guin writes, “It is the story that makes the difference.” Here, the story of conservation is one of reverence and devotion for interdependent and foundational relationships such as these. Special thanks to my pal Kade for sharing this essay long ago after we made their portrait, and shout out to David Naimon and his Between the Covers literary podcast: the Crafting With Ursula episodes, particularly the one with Lidia Yuknavitch, were significantly influential. 36 x 36 inches; acrylic and latex on birch panel. Full species key here. On View: May 22 - July 26, 2026 at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading, PA Reception: Sunday, June 14 from 3 - 5 pm in the Schmidt Gallery.
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✹ Nature Notes: Sand Creek Thank you to all who voted for my design last summer! I completed this ~3,915 sq ft mural at the end of November, and it was an incredible experience--you can read more here. I’m also amazed to share that it was awarded Bronze for Region 6 by the National Mural Awards. Such an honor to be amongst such fantastic projects throughout the country.
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✹ Sonoran Desert Early this year, I ventured down to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona to deliver this commission, which features a family of Gambel’s quail and a pair of Gambel’s quail gathered around scarlet hedgehog X fishhook cacti hybrids.
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✹ Umbrella Another recent work, Umbrella, features a Black heron displaying its umbrella/canopy feeding behavior, surrounded by fellow flora and fauna that can be found throughout the Chobe River watershed in Botswana. My late Aunt Colleen had a long career in international aid, working with the Peace Corps, USAID, and Doctors Without Borders in the Congo, Zimbabwe, and Sudan. She kept a wildlife checklist during a trip to Botswana, which was recently passed down to me. In it, she noted “Umbrella!” next to the Black heron, the inspiration behind this piece. 36 x 36 inches; acrylic and latex on birch panel. Thank you to Paul Wheatley for allowing me to study his videos of a Black heron for reference. Full species key here.
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✹ Science Illustration at Denver Public Schools This Spring, I had the wonderful pleasure of teaching a 9-week Science Illustration course to kiddos grades 6-8. We met three days a week, and each week we explored a different subject matter. We welcomed in-person birds of prey visitors from Rocky Mountain Wildlife Alliance and Denver Art Noodle, and virtual presentations with avian and reptilian ambassadors from Nature’s Educators (lol, I’ve never Zoomed with a bull snake before). I utilized the excellent Freshwaters Illustrated K-12 Water Teachers program, and some drawing exercises from Wild Wonder Foundation. Having only learned about science illustration in my twenties, it was so fun to watch students who already loved art, others who only loved animals, and some who declared they only love sports, hang out together and make scientific drawings of invertebrates, mushrooms, fruits, newts, and scat (I had to).
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Looking ahead✹ I am teaching another 3-day Garden-Inspired Murals class at the Denver Botanic Gardens where we’ll design, scale, transfer, and paint some personal-sized murals. Register here! ✹ The Denver Botanic Gardens is hosting their second Immersive Retreat full of art classes. I am excited to return and teach Pen and Ink Basics and Zinemaking. ✹ Shaking in my boots with excitement for the Noisy Waters Mural Festival in Bellingham, WA! ✹ As part of the annual Susannah Kelly Art Award honoring Susannah’s immeasurable impact on the emerging artist community, I am humbled and honored to have been invited to the upcoming Antler Gallery group exhibition The Ribbon as an Artist of Great Potential, opening September 24.
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Blue Jay and Lake Michigan thru my binos |
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American Dipper, Ballpoint and pen on Charcoal on grey-toned paper. Currently on view at CSU SPUR as part of “What Does Water Mean to You?” |
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Yes, That’s When
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
I like my body when I’m in the woods
and I forget my body. I forget that arms,
that legs, that nose. I forget that waist,
that nerve, that skin. And I aspen. I mountain.
I river. I stone. I leaf. I path. I flower.
I like when I evergreen, current and berry.
I like when I mushroom, avalanche, cliff.
And everything is yes then, and everything
new: wild iris, duff, waterfall, dew. this poem can be found in Hush (Middle Creek Press, 2020)
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“The Word for World is Water: World-Building and Creative Resistance Through Liquid Alliances”, Spector Books. |
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thanks for reading ✹ until next time ✹ reach out anytime
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CATIE MICHEL @catiecreating website | bluesky | instagram| linkedin cathrynbmichel@gmail.com archive ✹ Letter #1 | 4.18.25 ✹ Letter #2 | 8.15.25
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© Catie Michel 2026. All rights reserved.
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