Hi! I’m Mesa, and I’m a children’s book author and illustrator by night. By day, I’m a scientific and medical illustrator, animator, and infographic designer!
I got my start in illustration working on archaeological sites drawing artifacts and reconstructing buildings. My archaeological art took me around the world to digs in Turkey, Belize, Peru, and Portugal. From there I moved into scientific illustration, infographics, and medical illustration, eventually earning an M.A. in Medical Art from the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School (2015).
I’ve had a great career in science and medical visualization thus far, having designed infographics and illustrated with National Geographic since 2012, and worked with museums, zoos, aquariums, textbooks, popular non-fiction publishing, magazines, and even a line of anatomy puzzles with Genius Games.
I am passionate about the details of science and nature, travel, exploration, and the meetings of minds and cultures, and am a real big research nerd. My favorite thing is taking big and complicated ideas, and making them easy to understand. This is my mission in both my scientific work, and my children’s book creation.
I currently live in Fiji with my husband and two kids, but have called many places home. Our lives and work have landed us in Guatemala, Nepal, Korea, and even the South Pole! When I’m in the United States, I call my birthplace, Seattle, and Washington DC homes.
To learn a bit about scientific and medical illustration, you can listen to my interview on SVSLearn podcast:
Interview with Paul Kelly on the Medical Illustration Podcast
Interview with Mike Hendley on the Drawing Inspiration Podcast
Mesa’s Scientific and Medical work can be seen at www.mesaschumacher.com