Donna Druchunas returns for another SAW Student Interview.

“I am so excited to be able to share interviews with SAW students with you, so we can learn more about their work and influences and be inspired in our own creative journeys. Today, I’m talking to Naomi Volain.

Naomi’s background has myriad science connected careers led her to science cartooning. Previous work as a nutritionist and medical advertising copywriter in New York City was followed by high school science teaching in Massachusetts, where she received national and international teaching awards (as a Top 10 Finalist for the million-dollar Global Teacher Prize; the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching; the Environmental Protection Agency’s Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators, an Honorable Mention). She’s worked numerous gigs in informal science education, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab’s Education Office, schoolyard and botanical gardens. Science communication is her focus – comics are the genre.

Naomi lives in Pasadena, California.

Learn more about Naomi here:

― Donna Druchunas, SAW student & enthusiastt

Donna Druchunas: How and when did you get involved with comics?

Naomi Volain: I’m a science teacher. I would draw to teach science, and had my high school students draw in their lab and field assignments as well. I’m now creating comics as a way to educate people about plants and other topics. Cartooning is a new teaching genre for me where I can merge my passion for science and the arts. I've been creating comics since 2019.

DD: Were you interested in comics as a kid?

NV: Yes! My mother was a reading teacher who believed reading anything worked for literacy. Our house had stacks of Mad Magazine, Superman, Batman, Peanuts, and Archie comics.

DD: Tell me about your comics style and what makes it unique.

NV: Color is very important to me in my drawings. My art is self-taught, so it’s constantly evolving through my practice. What’s unique about my comic style is how I take scientific subjects – research, biography, medicine – and put them into comic pictures so readers can understand and appreciate the science.

DD: Tell me about your creative process. Do you have a specific process for creating comics from idea to finished pages?

NV: I do a lot of research on the science, and I draw multiple thumbnails! Ideas and pictures first go in my sketchbook. Then the story, in ink and pencil, makes it onto regular 8 ½ X 11” copy paper, usually preprinted with panels. That’s as specific as it gets for me for now.

One part of the creative process is time. I’ll work, then pause from the work - hours, overnight, days. When I get back to the comic, I can see it freshly. Editing works well at that point.

DD: What tools and supplies or apps do you use and why? Digital or Analog?

NV: I’m an Analog cartoonist right now. I use No. 2 pencils, archival ink (Micron), and a variety of colored pencils (Faber-Castell, Crayola, and Prismacolor).

DD: What projects are you working on now? Include links if you have any parts of this project online that you'd like to share.

NV: I'm working on a graphic memoir about my cancer experience. I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and have a full year of treatment. So, it’s not quite a memoir as I'm presently still in it. 1 in 8 women in the US will have breast cancer. I think there’s an audience, and interest, so I’m seeking to publish a book. I hope to have the (mostly required) 12 finished pages to submit to agents soon. I do feel urgency in getting this project done.

My cancer comics, and my other science comics can be found on the Plants Go Global Comics page.

DD: What projects do you have planned for the future?

NV: I've applied to a month-long Art Residency with the National Parks Arts Foundation, where I’d be creating comics about the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park native plants. If I’m selected, I’d go in July 2023. I'd have a gallery exhibit and a presentation as part of the Residency. I'm so excited about this.

DD: Where can we see more of your work and/or purchase your comics and books?

NV: You can see my Comics page in Plants Go Global, an educational platform I created to show how plants can be the answer to Earth’s sustainability.

DD: Tell me about some important teachers, artists, courses, or schools that have influenced your work.

NV: Education deserves credit! I attended the School of Visual Arts for advertising copywriting. There's Matt Silady from the California College of the Arts, and Jim Higgins from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. Both taught me the craft of comic writing and creating, and gave me confidence in my drawing. Then there’s brilliant Beth Callaghan, who teaches teachers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She’s from my origin story – an Environmental Science teacher colleague who supports my efforts in all things scientific and creative. And now, SAW's Beth Trembley who's guided and validated my graphic memoir about cancer.

Thank you, Naomi. It’s been great talking with you and having the opportunity to introduce you to the SAW blog readers!