Artist Biography: Tracy Taylor

Abstract

Tracy Taylor (Pedersen) began her illustration career while working as an entomology technician at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. There she penned a drawing of an almost microscopic new species of Wentletrap snail for the Malacology department. Other scientists got wind of her talents and commissioned her to render scientific illustrations of fish, crickets, and birds while maintaining the Entomology department’s extensive bug collection.

During her tenure at the Academy of Natural Sciences, she traveled with scientists to dense, untrammeled rainforests in the West Indies, and Central and South America. There with camera in hand and a box of paints and paper, she rendered field studies (often while huddled under an umbrella pelted by rain,) of the riotously colored birds such as parrots, tanagers and toucans, as well as the secretive understory birds that followed marching army ants.

Early in her career, Tracy painted a tropical Zig-Zag Heron and was awarded the George M. Sutton Award for Outstanding Bird Illustration. She also painted a new species of owl, the Cloud- forest Pygmy Owl, which adorned the April 1999 cover of the Auk, a scientific ornithological publication.

Later years would find her at a drafting table illustrating birds, butterflies, and other creatures for postage stamps of countries around the globe (one stamp set was featured at the World Stamp Expo in...

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