Josie Quack
Trees of Wing Haven
Pen and Ink
My name is Josie Quack, and I am an illustrator, designer, and herbalist working under the name Tenderheart Studio. My work spanning across media (my primary modes are pen and ink and printmaking) serves as an opportunity to help connect people to the natural world.
As a student of the earth, I use art and illustration to encourage reciprocity with the land, rather than extraction and dominance; practicing that reciprocity is central to my process. Wandering through woods, splashing in rivers, growing a garden, and making plant medicine all inform my process of making artwork that serves as evidence of those experiences. What might not look like art from the outside is essential to cultivating an intentional relationship with the land that can then be spoken through my work.
Lying stylistically between scientific illustration and folk art, my work seeks to bridge the gap between the magic and the mundane, between humans and our earthly cohabitants. While accuracy is important to me, so is story, and drawing things as we remember them. Often I find this is where the most impact is made. While science matters, it is only when we connect emotionally with the material that we’re able to create sustainable change.
In addition to my studio art practice, I offer illustration and design services to small businesses and individuals who feel most at home in nature and are ready to infuse their work with their deepest held values. My approach to making is thoughtful and deliberate, as well as intuitive, and I hope to bring deep intention and resonance to each project so that it may take on a life of its own.
Whether I’m doing client work or fine art, my primary motivation is to share the magic of the natural world and advocate for its proper stewardship, while hoping to eradicate human supremacy. We are not just part of nature: we are nature. Lasting change can happen only through recognizing that we are a crucial part of the whole.
About the Artwork
I was struck by the variety of trees that are found throughout Wing Haven. I tend to work on tree identification in winter, a time when trees turn inward, shedding leaves and turning their energy toward their root systems. I use bark and arrangement of limbs as indicators. This lends a sense of hope in the dark times, an idea of what foliage is to come, and also offers an idea of where mushrooms might appear come spring.
This piece catalogs most common species found on the preserve with the hopes that in 200 years we can check the progress of conservation and see if there’s been any change in the tree population, and celebrate our arboreal kin.
Interested in purchasing this print? Visit the ACRES shop!