Emily S. Damstra

@emilydamstra.com

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• Science illustrator, coin designer, native plant gardener, goldenrod enthusiast • Great Lakes region of N. America • she/her emilydamstra.com

image of 504-piece puzzle box top, showing a collage of butterflies with a few plants, caterpillars, and a pupa mixed in
Illustration of ruddy turnstone in breeding plumage
Front of the 2025 Canada Post fungus stamp set's Official First Day Cover, featuring images of 5 different fungus stamps against a background that includes larger-size cropped portions of the oyster fungus illustration.
Detailed color illustration showing 3 different views of the same specimen. Two at the bottom are the unreconstructed fossil from different angles. The reconstruction at the top shows the brachiopod in life position, with 9 visible boreholes and the common epibionts Cornulites and a bryozoan. The shell has pinkish and whitish horizontal stripes and the valves are slightly agape, with cirri lining the opening.
Detailed color illustration showing a dorsal view of a False map turtle (Graptemys pseudogeographica) carapace.
Photo of the reverse side of a 2012 Lucky Loonie coin, which includes the inscriptions "Canada" and "Dollar." It features a loon rising up from the water with its wings spread - a territorial display. It also includes the Olympic logo, a stylized maple leaf (like on the flag), and a security feature that's a circle a little above centre, with a maple leaf design inside it. Lastly, my initials ED are near the bottom left.
Watercolor painting of a the top portion of a Late goldenrod (Solidago altissima) plant in summer, showing an array of leaves and rosette galls. White background.
Image of the book cover, with the title near the top and a collage of photos of Canadian coins and tokens below.
Compilation of 30 coin images, all modern US legal US tender coins.
Image of the reverse side of Dorothy Vaughan's Congressional Gold Medal. The design shows Ms. Vaughan standing in front of two magnetic tape units— components of a mainframe computer—instructing two women, who are seated and taking notes. Although I don’t know if she ever actually stood up in front of a mainframe instructing others, I felt that showing her as an instructor w/ people literally looking up to her was a good way to symbolize her inspirational leadership qualities. She was someone whose colleagues looked up to her in the metaphorical sense. Below, three inscriptions highlight important aspects of Dorothy’s career: Fortran expert; Scout Launch Program; and Supervisor, West Area Computers. In the background of the design, a sun symbolizes enlightenment, and also suggests that Ms. Vaughan was beacon for others, leading the way for African American women—and indeed, all women—at NACA and NASA. Inscribed in the center of the sun are Dorothy’s compelling words: “I changed what I could, and what I couldn’t I endured.”
Two side-by-side detailed pen and ink stipple drawings of a blastoid; one is from a side view, one from an oral view.
Detailed, realistic color Illustration of a banana slug, Blue-grey tail dropper slug, and a Douglas fir cone and twig Ariolimax columbianus, Prophysaon coeruleum, and Pseudotsuga menziesii
Detailed pencil drawing of two complete Stiff goldenrod leaves and their cast shadows
Watercolor painting of the top surface of a complete Stiff goldenrod leaf
Two photographs of Solidago altissima leaves. One shows the underside of a leaf w/ ~15 poo-covered egg piles. The other shows the upper surface of the leaf; its tip is browned and curled.
Photograph of a female Goldenrod Leaf Miner beetle with a male on top of her. She has just laid three eggs in a stack on the underside of a goldenrod leaf (Solidago altissima) and is in the process of coating the eggs with poo.
detailed color illustration of a Goldenrod leaf miner beetle, dorsal view
Detailed colored pencil drawing of The Elegant Sunburst Lichen; Xanthoria elegans.
A garter snake trying but failing to enter a crack between bricks on a concrete porch.
Detailed color painting of the rattle of a Western diamondback snake. The rattle is illustrated as if cross-sectioned, so you can see inside and understand the way the parts nest.
Detailed realistic illustration of 14 different goldenrod stems with 7 different types of galls. Some galls have exit holes from the insects that induced and lived inside the galls. Some of the fly galls show damage from a bird. All are dried, as you'd see them in late fall or winter.
Detailed color illustration of a Northern paper wasp on a white background
Detailed color illustrations of a Central Johnny darter and a Florida gar
Image of US quarter reverse featuring the Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray's face within the large word HOPE.
Images of US American Women Quarters reverse sides: Maya Angelou, Anna May Wong, Edith Kanaka`ole, and the Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray.
Image of Canada Post souvenir sheet featuring a stamp with an illustration of an Oregon spotted frog, a stamp with an illustration of a Fowler's toad, and an illustration of a Oregon spotted frog's head poking up from the surface of a pond covered in duckweed. © Canada Post
An image of the puzzle box top, featuring a collage of my Great Lakes fishes illustrations.
The watercolour and gouache painting shows the crinoid (sea lily) reconstructed, with its arms splayed and stem curved as if feeding in a current. Its stalk is attached to a bit of hardground on the sea floor, among some marine detritus including the remains of two different species of brachiopods and one edrioasteroid. The hardground is depicted as fossilized rather than reconstructed. In between the reconstructed crown of Konieckicrinus josephi and the hardground below is a painting of an unreconstructed fossil crown of the same crinoid species.
Illustration of bumble bee on aster; illustration of ammonoid; illustration of rainbow trout head; image of American Silver Eagle coin