This comic is an artistic reflection on the beautiful inner workings of nature that are oftentimes overlooked by the dominant scientific practice. It was created as I began my first year of graduate school, as a newly minted doctoral student with Boricua roots and a Wisconsin upbringing.
Inspired by being thrust into teaching bio labs, conducting research across the Atlantic in Vieques, and the rigors of graduate school in an unfamiliar setting—Upstate New York, with its strange and stunning flora and fauna—it describes the growing pains of adjusting to a new place, learning from outside of the classroom, and creating a home wherever one goes.
Many of the organisms featured in the comic are studied by the lab I am now a part of, tracing my path through the various ecosystems of Wisconsin, New York, and Borinquen Bella. Through sharing it, I hope to evoke the importance of blending artistic/scientific inquiry with simply observing—just being—within the community of nature.
This is how we all sprout.
