Info & Contact

Interdisciplinary Artist • Science Visualizer • Art Director

Not hiring; please do not send portfolios.
For requests to work with Quanta OR permission for Quanta art, see the QUANTA section below.

NO: N-F-Ts, "AI"

ELSEWHERE IN CYBERSPACE

Linktr.ee/NatureinTheory
Real-time 3D: Sketchfab
Pinterest: art | direction

SHOP

Prints: INPRNT

ABOUT

Since the 00s: illustrator & fine artist → designer → art director → physics student → science visualizer.

Currently an independent contractor collaborating with scientific publications, researchers, labs, universities, and others globally. Available for freelance / consulting and contract opportunities.

I work in a variety of styles and mediums, and most enjoy “visualizing invisible things” — a recurring joke on my team at Quanta, meaning abstract and imperceptible subjects in fundamental science. My favorite topics include physics (from the particular to the universal), science fiction, and fantasy.

My work has been published by:
AAAS Science, The American Mathematical Society, The Atlantic, The Baffler, BBC Science Focus, BMW, The DOE, NSF & U.S. Particle Physics, The Institute for Advanced Study, MIT Press, NanoGRAV, Nautilus, Newton Press (ニュートン), Pour La Science, Science News, Scientific American, The Simons Foundation, Spektrum.de, Symmetry, WIRED, and elsewhere including various books and other publications, galleries, and on one skyscraper in NYC.

Recent achievements:
The Pulitzer Prize, ASME Ellie for General Excellence, Webbys, and One Club Pencil. Solo, I've received an assortment of awards for art and writing since the early 2000s. A university physics department award remains one of my most personally-meaningful honors.

In 2014 I joined Quanta Magazine as the first official Art Director and was the sole art staff for several years following. Through 2021, my work included establishing and shepherding the visual identity, directing and creating feature art (illustration, photography, interactive, video, etc.), visual / graphic design, hiring and guiding creative staff, and more.

✎ Quanta Contact Form
Interested in working with Quanta? Send portfolios there!
I am no longer the AD, the above form is the best way to get your work seen by current staff.

Permission for Quanta art or graphics:
→ Contact Quanta (form above) if: you need a specific image I created and the article is dated 2021 or earlier.
→ Email me if: the article is dated 2022 or later, and is at least one year old.
→ If you need a similar visual, I may be available for hire.

SELECT TALKS, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES

• Sketchfab Science Spotlight
  Why & how I created real-time 3D models for Quanta. (text)
  
• SVA Creators - Feature
  A short video about my botanical photography, art, & approach to social media. (video, 2:40)
  
• Adjust Your Margins - Interview
  About my work; synthesizing art, design, science, and gardening. (text)
  
• SciViz 2019 - Talk
  "Galaxy Leggings, Truth Serum & the Visibility Cloak"
  My approach to scientific / editorial art at Quanta. (video, ~20:00)
  
• Illustrating Mathematics - Book Feature
  After giving a talk at ICERM on the titular subject, my Möbius strip packing animation was featured in a book of mathematical art by Diana Davis / AMS. A younger, math-hating me would be infinitely confused by these developments. Yet here we are!
  

PHOTOGRAPHIC & BOTANICAL

I love plants — tropical foliage and Araceae, particularly. Over some years I amassed a collection of indoor specimens, along with (perhaps inordinately?) expansive mental and photographic libraries on the subject.

• DNA Analysis Reveals a Genus of Plants Hiding in Plain Sight
  In 2018 I wrote / art-directed / produced an article about the science behind Philodendron bipinnatifidum & related species' reclassification to the genus Thaumatophyllum. Thanks to John Rennie for editing and to Haarkon for photography.
  
• Unsplash
  Creative Commons photos, free to use. (Plants, landscapes, textures)
  

© Olena Shmahalo