Ink Dwell studio creates art that explores the beauty and complexity of nature. Merging classical techniques of science illustration with modern fine art, we create public and private commissions, paintings, visual art, illustrations, exhibitions and much more.
Ink Dwell makes everyday places special and enhances iconic locations with wondrous imagery.
Team
Jane is a visual artist, science illustrator, and the founder of Ink Dwell. Her art career started when she was a little girl obsessively painting flowers and bears on the walls of her bedroom. She received more formal training with a BFA in Printmaking from RISD and then attended California State University Monterey Bay, where she received a master’s certificate in science illustration. She has created large-scale public art across the country, including the Wall of Birds at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and produced works for the National Aquarium, the de Young Museum, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, and more. She is the creator of the Migrating Mural campaign, a series of public installations that highlight wildlife along migration corridors it shares with people. She still enjoys painting flowers and bears, though nowadays she doesn’t get in trouble for painting on the walls.
Cofounder
A third-generation San Franciscan who loves the region’s booming surf and roaring rivers, Thayer manages Ink Dwell’s operations. As an author and correspondent who has covered exploration for nearly two decades, he loves to tell stories of the natural world. He found the ninth largest diamond ever discovered at Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park and once survived 20 days stranded on a desert island. With Jane Kim, he co-authored The Wall of Birds (Harper Design), a book about Ink Dwell’s monumental mural at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. His forthcoming book, The River Runner (Random House), explores the life of the world’s greatest expedition kayaker.
Danza grew up and resides in the oak woodlands of Northern California. She has bachelor degrees in botany and studio art from Humboldt State University and studied science illustration at California State University Monterey Bay. Danza has worked on-site for some of Ink Dwell’s biggest projects, including the Wall of Birds and The National Aquarium’s Living Seashore. Today, she develops imagery and concepts for Ink Dwell’s digital and physical works. She strives for scientific accuracy in her work and hopes it can impart the sense of wonder and preciousness that she feels when observing nature.
Fiorella Ikeue
Illustrator
With a name that means “flower” in Italian, Fiorella was always destined to find her passion in the natural world. A lifelong interest in science and art led her to pursue a degree in biology from Kalamazoo College and a master’s certificate in science illustration from California State University, Monterey Bay. As a Peruvian-American living in southern Japan, Fio finds beauty in cultural exchange just like she finds beauty in the exchange between science and art. Her appreciation for the cleansing, regenerative nature of rain inspired her to bestow the name upon her son.
Samantha Chang
Artist’s Assistant
Born and raised in the East Bay, Sami now resides in a quiet hamlet beneath the San Bruno Mountains, tucked between the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. She developed a love for the outdoors as a child, exploring California’s robust state and local parks system. She earned her bachelors in marine science and her master’s certification in science illustration at California State University Monterey Bay. With Ink Dwell, she assists the studio with projects of all sizes, from working with textiles, to printmaking, to painting very straight and large lines on very big public walls. Outside of the studio, you can find Sami field sketching and exploring local parks and tidepools, probably getting excited over some type of mollusk.