Heather Murphy,

Wildlife Biologist & Artist

 

By Sandra Martin

Spring 2003
   

In 1960, first-grader Heather Wallis was disciplined by her teacher because of her “overactive imagination,” and the experience squelched her desire to color outside the lines for years.  Her creative urge smoldered, though, and when she took some basic art classes as a college student 15 years later, things just clicked.  She considered studies in art, but followed her science muse instead and did drawings and paintings to please herself. 

Not yet a college graduate, she started work in 1978 with the Forest Service as a Young Adult Conservation Corps crew leader on the Lake Wenatchee Ranger District in the Cascade Mountains near Leavenworth, Washington.  After a permanent job offer from the Forest Service, she decided to finish her college degree and intermittently attended the University of Washington in Seattle to obtain a B.S. in Wildlife Habitat Management, minoring in Forestry, and also taking some art classes.  She received her degree in 1991.

Heather Murphy has worked for the Forest Service as a Wildlife Biologist on the Lake Wenatchee and adjacent Leavenworth Ranger Districts since 1979.  She has built a life and a home with her husband, Patrick Murphy, also a Wenatchee National Forest employee, focused on family, friends, and the Cascade Mountains that surround Leavenworth.  She works to manage and conserve the plants and animals of these wild mountains, and she celebrates them through her passion for capturing wild things and their habitat in her notebooks with sketches, paintings, and observations. 

For the past six years, Murphy has used her creative talents to build a business selling her artwork.  In 1997, a Leavenworth shopkeeper saw a color photocopy of some of her paintings and sketches, and urged Murphy to sell some in the shop.  Since then Murphy has grown her Walleye Cards business to annual sales of 15,000 cards throughout the western U.S. and nationwide.  She has shown her artwork in group and solo shows in eastern Washington and Seattle, and is currently working on a book.  And she still works for the Forest Service.

 

 

Women in Natural Resources:  How did you get started with the Forest Service?

Heather Murphy:  I was a Recreation Guard near Yakima, Washington in 1974.  The next year I got a job with the Forest Service counting spruce bud worms, and moved north to the Wenatchee National Forest.  I had several short-term jobs after that with the Soil Conservation Service and the Forest Service, and then started with the Lake Wenatchee Ranger District doing Young Adult Conservation work. 

In 1979 I was offered a job as a permanent employee as the Wildlife-Wilderness-Cultural Resources-Range technician at the same district.  Over the years, I went back to school at the University of Washington to finish my Bachelor of Science degree.  Jerry Franklin was teaching at the University then, and he was a real inspiration [Professor Franklin has been a ground-breaking pioneer in the whole-ecosystem approach to land management].  I also took some art classes while I was there.

WiNR:  What kind of art classes did you take?

Murphy:  I took figure drawing.  That was in 1984 and 1987.  I had completed coursework through my junior year by the time I dropped out of college in 1974 and received a Forest Tech. degree from a community college in 1977.  By the time I went back to U.W., I took advanced drawing because I’d already completed some basic art classes at the community college. 

WiNR:  It must have been exciting to take classes in the art program at a major university.

Murphy:  It was!  They usually don’t allow students who are not art majors into their upper-level classes.  I had to bring in my portfolio for review.  They accepted me and then placed me where they thought I should be, in the flow of the program.  It was quite an honor.

            Art classes were a really nice break from the rest of my program of study.  I was taking all science courses except for art.  Twice a week I had a 4-hour studio class, plus my homework.  I loved the break from science-oriented forestry and wildlife classes.

WiNR:  Have you taken any formal art training since graduating from U.W.?

 Murphy:  I’ve taken some workshops.  For example, a recent innovation on the Wenatchee National Forest, the Watershed Art program, brought 14 internationally-known artists to the Wenatchee River watershed to raise awareness of how unique it is.  I was involved in the program and worked with the Forest Service to help publish a booklet about the project.  Artists Robert Bateman, Tony Angell, and Art Wolfe came here with this program.  Some artists, like David Barker of New Zealand, gave workshops while they were here—it was so cool!

            My early watercolor training came in 1993 when my sister, Barbara Wallis Kerwin, a college arts professor in Los Angeles, sent me my first field sketchbook and a selection of paints and brushes.  I would paint wildlife scenes and send her color copies for a critique via phone and letter.  She was eventually satisfied with my progress and now can just celebrate with me, rather than be my teacher.

            Another artist, Dan Tuttle of Leavenworth, has also provided me with some casual instruction in exchange for a good bottle of wine!  I was also lucky enough to take a terrific weekend course, “Art and Poetry of the Wild,” taught by Tim NcNulty and Libby Mills at the North Cascades Institute in Sedro-Wooley, Washington.  So, I have benefited from the instruction and assistance of many colleagues and teachers, and feel fairly confident in my technical abilities.

WiNR:  When did you start selling some of your artwork?

Murphy:  I started in 1997 with just a few designs on cards I made myself at a local copy shop.  I sold them at a few stores in Leavenworth.  But the color copies cost $1.50 each to produce then, so I didn’t make too much profit!

WiNR:  Are you to the point yet where you need to declare income to the I.R.S. from your art-related business?

Murphy:  I got a business license in 1997.  Each year since then I’ve sold more cards than the previous year, and I’m diversifying and growing the business.  But so far, I only get to declare my losses! 

            I’m also working on a book proposal and it includes a marketing strategy for a New York City literary agent.  I graphed out my yearly sales.  In 2001 I sold 15,600 cards, and two years before I was only selling 7,300 cards, so I am continuing to grow in sales.

WiNR:  Where do you sell them?

 Murphy:  A third of my sales are from my website, www.wildtales.com, and from workshops and art shows.  Another third of my business is with museums, lodges, outdoor stores, gift stores, and bookstores, both local and up and down the West Coast, along the I-5 corridor from Oregon to the Canadian border.  I work with a wonderful card distributor who covers north central Washington for me, and I handle the business from other stores along the coast.  My distributor is a great marketer, but also very polite and works so well with even the smallest stores.  Our philosophy is that the customer really needs to walk away happy, or don’t even sell anything to them.   

            The last third of my business—the most noteworthy third—is my relationship with the Northwest Interpretive Association, a group that works with National Parks and National Forests.  Through them, I sell in shops in Olympic National Park, North Cascades National Park, and many National Forests in Washington.  Lately I’ve gotten some national distribution through the Association, too.

 WiNR:  This sounds like a lot of work: taking orders, putting orders together, preparing them for shipping, getting them in the mail.  Who does the work?

Murphy:  Just me and my husband.  My card distributor does a lot of the work for the local region.  But anything with the mail—that’s me.  Oh, we do get some help occasionally: house guests may be asked to lend a hand now and then!

WiNR:  Do you have seasonal highs and lows?

Murphy:  Yes, May for Mother’s Day and spring enthusiasts, July and August for summer travel, and Christmas is really good—actually, October and November. 

WiNR:  Your business sounds pretty extensive, but you still haven’t made a profit yet?

Murphy:  No, because the printing costs are high, and I have diversified my line of cards each year.  Right now I spend between $10-20,000 a year for printing, which includes my new Wildtales Journal.  Other costs are mailing supplies and postage.  So, no profit yet, but the business is paying for itself.  My plan is to make a profit as I move into second runs of some of my cards.  I guess if I quit doing brand new designs, I’d make a greater profit!

WiNR:  You do new designs each year? 

Murphy:  Yes, I now have about 80 different note cards, postcards, bookmarks, reproduction prints and journals.  But I want to keep my line of cards fresh, and I am always studying, sketching, and painting, wherever I go.  Last year I was in Ireland and was able to make some wonderful studies of plants and antiquities. 

WiNR:  It seems that the exposure for your cards in so many shops will eventually bring customers to you who want to purchase original art, or even prints.  That would bring more of a profit for you.

Murphy:  That’s true.  We currently have cards in about 50 stores and I sell directly to customers from everywhere through mail order.  Most of my art is contained in my sketchbooks, but I have been building a body of work—original paintings—that is offered for sale through gallery shows.  I’m considering posting images of my original artwork on my website to offer them for sale to customers who cannot travel to galleries in Washington state where I show my work. 

WiNR:  Do you see your business as just a sideline?  Or are you thinking of growing it into a fulltime business, possibly as something to do when you retire from the Forest Service?

Murphy:  I really like crossing over into both worlds, the science and the arts.  So for the near future, I am happy to continue with things the way they are.  I did a Goal Statement when I first started my business in 1997.  My goals when I first started were: to inspire others to learn more about nature; to provide affordable art; to encourage people to “get out in nature”; to travel, study, and draw for my work; and to have fun. 

My financial goals were to cover the expenses of building a garage/studio for our house, and to be able to work on a reduced schedule for the Forest Service.  I had hoped to make enough profit to pay for a garage out-right, but instead we recently took advantage of low interest rates available with loans these days. 

Just producing paintings was not something that interested me because selling original paintings would put them out of the reach of most people.  Printing cards from my sketchbook work allows someone with just a few dollars to have some of my art. 

I’ve been able to travel with my art as I’ve been asked to go to different places to put on workshops.  That’s a lot of fun!  And when I travel for pleasure, I always do sketches and paintings.  My art provides a special connection for me to the places I visit.  It helps me to see a place with a vision different from that I would have as a tourist.  Doing my art when I travel slows me down into these places, and makes me really learn about the animals and plants I observe.  I’ve traveled and sketched in Ireland, Scotland, Hawaii, and Malaysia.  The artwork I did in Ireland last year and in Hawaii the year before will eventually make its way onto cards.

And, I love that my work is special to other people, not just me.  I get some great letters and emails.  I got one letter from an elderly woman who saw a painting I did of a bouquet of wild flowers in a canning jar, on the cover of a magazine.  She wrote that she kept looking at that painting:

Your picture of the yellow flowers lay on my counter for days & every time I went by it I thought, “I wish I could draw like that.”  One day it dawned on me that I had never tried, so I picked up a pencil & paper & drew those flowers, you know I did a pretty good job for a seventy-five year old lady.  Your article makes me more aware of the beauty of nature and our world.

In another letter I received the ultimate compliment:

I have a friend dying of pancreatic cancer.  She’s a real nature lover, so I make a point of sending her one of your cards each time I write.  She enjoys receiving them so much!  It makes me happy to know that I’m sending something that gives her such pleasure.

WiNR:  Your work really touches people.

Murphy:  Yes!  I’ve heard from others who have told me how my work reminds them of when their grandparents took them out to the woods to watch birds or identify plants.  There is a connection there: from my work, to feelings for viewers about younger days, when life was simpler. 

I especially like seeing my work get people out—they go out hiking, they go out in nature.  My printer in Seattle tells me that a lot of their workers have been inspired from seeing press sheets of my art to go hiking and camping.  This is really rewarding for me.  But I can’t believe it when someone tells me how honored they are to take my classes!  No way!

WiNR:  It’s terrific to hear about these responses from people who have seen your work.  I know this must be important for you.  Can you tell us about your new book?

Murphy:  Last fall I was able to self-publish Wildtales Journal, a spiral-bound sketchbook with a few pages of instruction on field observation, nature writing, and field painting and drawing.  Each section includes simple nature journal exercises for the reader to do; “Identify 10 plants,” “Write about wildlife behavior; what time of day do they feed and what are they eating?” and  “Select a leaf, draw its shape, its venation, and how it’s arranged on the stem.”  My book is selling pretty well, so I am developing a larger book concept that will include wildlife stories, more of my artwork, and more instruction.

WiNR:  Have you ever considered writing a book that just provided your wildlife observations and artwork, without the instruction part?

Murphy:  Since February 2003 I have been writing and illustrating a monthly column, “Wildtales Country Journal,” for a small northwest magazine.  I have been encouraged by response to my column and I’m considering pulling them together for a book.  Originally, I started working on such a book back in 1996.  Then I attended a writers’ workshop and met professional writers and literary agents who suggested to me that the instructional book was more timely, so I’ve been working on that idea for a while now, which is how Wildtales Journal evolved.  In 1999 my Forest Service position got a bit more complicated when two Ranger Districts I was working on merged, and what little extra time I had was devoted to painting and to growing my card business.  The book project got shelved for a while.

About a year ago we got another Wildlife Biologist on staff for the Ranger Districts and I was able to reduce my work schedule—I’m now working about 60%, and have been able to turn back to my book projects.

WiNR:  It must be helpful to have new personnel to share the workload with.

Murphy:  Yes, it’s great to have new folks on the District.  Many of us have been here for a long while, and some are “trauma-bonded.”  It’s good to have a fresh perspective among us.

WiNR:  What do you mean by “trauma-bonded”?

Murphy:  The Chelan County forest fires of 1994 had some devastating impacts on our districts.  Then, two years ago we had employees on a fire crew that sustained fatalities while fighting a fire on the Okanogon National Forest in the north central Washington.  It’s been some tough years for our districts, but it does seem like we are moving ahead.

            In 1999, we had two separate Ranger Districts (Lake Wenatchee and Leavenworth) and three permanent Wildlife Biologists between them.  By 2000, we combined the districts and also had some personnel changes.  The result was a reduction in the permanent staffing for wildlife biologists.  All of these changes left one permanent wildlife biologist working on the combined districts—me!

So, I had my work cut out for me to keep all of our programs going and build new programs that we needed to meet requirements, as well as supporting new partnerships in our area.  One of our biologists came back from maternity leave and we were eventually able to hire some new permanent personnel.  So now we have a well-staffed work force and I’ve been able to reduce my work schedule.

WiNR:  Is the spotted owl still a big part of your workload on the Wenatchee National Forest?

Murphy:  Oh yes!  We still go out and call for owls, and I still help sometimes.  Staff at the Pacific Northwest Research Station’s Wenatchee Lab [U.S. Forest Service] are beginning a study of spotted owl and barred owl interactions in our area.  But right now my main work focus is on wetlands restoration, songbird conservation, partnership development, large landscape-scale projects, and several fire recovery projects from the 1994 fires and 2001 fires. 

WiNR:  What were the acreages burned in those years?  What kind of land base are you working on with the recovery efforts?

Murphy:  We had 225,000 acres burned in Chelan County in 1994.  Of that total, approximately 120,000 acres were on the Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee Ranger Districts.  Then, in August 2001, a big lightning complex came through and started dozens of fires that grew into a 7,800-acre fire.  Many people, including my family, were evacuated from our homes in both 1994 and 2001.  Now we’re implementing monitoring plans so that we can keep track of the effects of these fires on different species of wildlife and plants. 

            Another interesting response to these fires is happening in my neighborhood.  A group of neighbors, including my husband and me, have joined together as private citizens to apply for a grant to reduce fuel hazards on our lands and lots through pruning and thinning a 3,000-acre “neighborhood.”

I’ve also been working with ski areas in our districts; delineating wildlife corridors around and through the ski areas.  We have identified riparian corridors, worked on lynx habitat connectivity, and identified elk wallows, talus/meadow habitat—that kind of special wildlife habitat.  These areas are delineated on maps and will be used in long-term planning.  So, when the ski area plans an expansion of ski runs, they will know ahead of time to keep development away from these sensitive wildlife habitat areas.  Many of my colleagues from other areas of the West have told me that they truly wish that this kind of planning was in place 20 years ago where they work; I’m excited to be part of this work in the Cascades.

            And, our work with spotted owls is a constant.  We monitor owls on our district by calling for them—a human imitates their hooting call and they’ll answer back, if they are there.  We can find owls in that manner and note where they are.  By going back over a period of some weeks, we can get a clear idea of their home ranges and the areas of the forest they are using.

Murphy’s dreamed-of studio over the garage was still not a reality when I visited her home in Summer 2002, though their new studio is now complete.  She showed me her work space in the house: she used a guest bedroom to store her card stock and to prepare orders for shipping; she stored many cartons of cards in her basement; and she used her loft-office as a studio to complete paintings from sketches she does in her journals out in the forest and fields.

WiNR:  Do you get orders for sets of cards, or individual cards? 

Murphy:  Both.  Businesses might order 12, 20, or 100 of individual designs, and a complete order can total 36 to 500 cards.  Individuals who order from my website will get sets of six, or sometimes just order  individual cards.

I have copies of all my current images here in my home, including cards, journals, bookmarks, and post cards.  Each box holds 400 of each card.  I have them organized in boxes and I also have wire racks with singles in them.  I have all my packaging supplies handy to prepare the shipments.

WiNR:  What kind of mailing services do you use?

Murphy:  I generally use Priority Mail when I send to individuals.

WiNR:  That’s expensive!

Murphy:  Yes, it is, but it’s also one of the quickest ways to get orders out to customers.  Because my time is limited by my job with the Forest Service, I usually make only one shipment per week and I try to use the quickest method to help balance that.  I think I’ll get the investment back eventually—I really believe that.  I think if I treat my customers well, I’ll be rewarded.

WiNR:  How do you choose among the images from your sketch books to select the ones you want for a card?

Murphy:  I find a theme, one that means something to me.  I have one here that I call “Cinco de Mayo,” because I painted it on May 5, and the bright colors of the chair I painted reminded me of Mexico.  The back of this card has hummingbirds on it; these bird species had recently migrated from Mexico on the day I painted them—so all of these images came together for me, to help honor the Hispanic community in our valley. 

WiNR:  You must have an extensive collection of sketchbooks!

 Murphy:  I do.  I am now working on sketchbook Number 20!  Besides my own sketchbooks, I have a collection of other artists’ and naturalists’ journals.  Some of my favorites are:  The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, 1473 to 1515; Thomas Moran, the Field Sketches 1856-1923; Days on Sea, Loch and River, Muriel Foster 1913 to 1928; and Charles Burchfield’s Journals 1911 to 1965.  My sketchbook collection goes back 10 years, and my journals go back much farther.  They are part of my life. 

In my sketchbook from 1994, for instance, I painted some sketches as the wildfires came toward our house.  I wrote, “The sound of one hundred freight trains, Friday night, July 29, 1994.”  I remember vividly what it felt like as we drove away from our house that night, not knowing if we’d see it again.  But we did.

            And a few days earlier I wrote in my notebook about a family in the Tyee Fire north of here that had to leave their home as the fires advanced.  They couldn’t find their cats, and had to leave them behind:

The farmer comes back for the household goods and pets.  Kitties aren’t to be found.  Flames are swiftly approaching, smoke filling the air, the roar of the fire is deafening.  The way out is soon to be cut off . .  “move out fast & save yourself.”  Two days later back at the farm.  The house, the barn, the out buildings all burned to the foundation.  All surrounding trees incinerated, it was hot, it was fast.  Call for kitties, look for kitties, look for kitty remains.  So sad, no kitties, too sad, what probably happened to them?  One day later.  Neighbor 6 miles away calls

 . . . one of the kitties made it safely.  It out-ran the fire.  It has 4 singed paws, but is alive and well.  A hero kitty . . . run kitty run.

WiNR:  Do you always take your sketchbook and paints with you when you go out in the field?

Murphy:  Not when working for the Forest Service, of course, though I do take an official field journal with me, always.  On my personal time, though, yes!  I have a small paint set that I take with me everywhere.  I had this paint set with me on my six-week trip through Scotland.  I traveled there during May-July 2000 and volunteered with the Highland government.  I worked with foresters to help reclaim their ancient forests.  I provided some ideas for managing high recreation use on top of Ben Nevis, helped take down sheep fencing in a wilderness area, and searched for loons.

WiNR:  How did that come about? 

Murphy:  I’ve always wanted to go to Scotland.  I planned to go since I was a teenager, and applied for a Rotary International scholarship, but didn’t get selected.  So, that dream got put on hold.  But I knew that someday I would get there.  Twenty-five years later, I started searching for a way to travel there in a professional capacity.  I started with an Internet search for information on natural resource agencies in Scotland.  I found information on the John Muir Trust and arranged to volunteer with them on trail rehabilitation.  They soon found out that I had professional experience with wilderness management with the U.S. Forest Service, and they asked me to work with them on land management issues.

            Also, I met a Scottish antiquities expert through mutual friends.  They ended up visiting Leavenworth, and stayed with us in our home.  We talked about my background in forestry and wildlife management, and I found out then that our visitor, John Hutchinson, was the head of the Lochaber Highland Council.  He helped make arrangements for me to do some volunteer work in Scotland.  Because of my acquaintance with John, I got to go to many wonderful sites that the average tourist never sees.  I had to take boats or hike in to many of these spots, and I was rewarded with seeing so much wonderful wildlife and wild places in Scotland.  I got to go to the Isle of Eigg and help count Arctic Terns, and that was a true highlight for me.  Most of my time with the Council staff was spent learning about their forestry issues, though.  I assisted them with planning for habitat connectivity, and planning on a landscape scale.

WiNR:  Do you only paint in the field?  How long do you spend on each sketch?  And finally, what are you working on that’s new?

Murphy:  I do most of my paintings in the field, and then finish them up at home.  I have a lot of field drawings and paintings.  I spend about 15 minutes on a quick pen and ink sketch.  Paint sketches might take a little longer.  Finishing a painting can take me two hours or twenty, depending on the intricacies.  Sometimes I note my sketching time in my journal, and you might see such notes on my cards.  I keep at least three journals at once:  one is for field work; one is for serious painting projects; and one tells the story of what’s going on in my life—whatever catches my eye. 

A year ago I became intrigued with the Lewis and Clark expedition, and how they recorded what they encountered on their journey through paintings and drawings.  I’ve been trying to replicate some of William Clark’s and Merriweather Lewis’s drawings.  I want to get the flavor; to really understand how they saw things.  I finished a few sketches for some new cards for Christmas 2002.  I’ve also branched out into a new product line, nature journals—my Wildtales Journal. 

WiNR:  Thanks so much for sharing the details of Walleye Cards with us.  In closing, what do you think is your key to success?

Murphy:  I just try to have fun, while working hard and doing the best I can.  I want to give the greatest effort and achieve the highest quality work I can in both my wildlife biologist job and in my art, but I try not to take myself too seriously in either.  I find my artwork is a great bridge for me between natural science and art, and it’s fascinating to have a foot in both.  My Walleye Cards is a mix of both worlds, and focuses on a simpler way of looking at life.  I find that art helps me truly appreciate the natural world.  I believe nature holds so many of the keys to this ever-changing life, if we would just listen.

  

Visit Walleye Cards on the web at www.wildtales.com to see Heather Murphy’s full line of cards, bookmarks, and journals.