Artist and student of the natural world Eva Telzer '04 at work. Photo by Nancy Palmieri

She begins by taking measurements, calculating the precise span of the wings or the distance from molar to eye socket. Whether she is working on a swallowtail or a kangaroo skull, calculating correct proportions is key, and limning the contours, “getting the shape,” is the hardest part of all.

Eva Telzer '04 has been drawing seriously since the age of thirteen, when she first took a course in biological illustration. The bicoastal daughter of cell biologists in California who spend summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole on Cape Cod, she has inherited her parents' sense of reverence for the natural world. She is particularly enamored of beach debris, and is also partial to insect and plant species of exotic color. Flowers, butterflies, shells, and skulls are her forte, and while she draws directly from specimens, she works best in the privacy of her studio at home in Claremont. Here at Mount Holyoke, the floor and desk of her small cluttered room in Prospect Hall have become her makeshift studio.

Telzer is just beginning to show her work. A selection of her drawings in colored pencil and acrylic appeared in a solo exhibition at the University of California at Riverside last spring. In the summer, Telzer received a commission from a professor at Yale for a drawing of a lily. And an elegant etching of a seahorse on black scratchboard earned her first place and “best of show” at the Barnstable County Fair in 1997. Also that year, Telzer's drawing of a shell in pen and ink appeared in the Wood's Hole Children's School of Science brochure.

Photo by Nancy Palmieri

Telzer's Mount Holyoke experience has presented her with new challenges in art. While her instructor on Cape Cod, a professional biological illustrator, taught her the nuances of reproducing the intricate detail and tightly contructed physiology of bones and butterflies, in her drawing class at MHC she is having to learn to “loosen up.” “I'm very meticulous,” says Telzer, who has welcomed the opportunity to expand her skills, “but sometimes it causes problems.” She finds it hard not to take measurements and to be freely gestural, “more open” in her approach. She also likes “really fine tips” on her pencils. And while she's taken a life-drawing course in the past, she still prefers skulls and shells to human flesh, landscapes, or still life compositions.

Telzer likes to take her time with drawings. For a kangaroo skull (provided by her Woods Hole instructor, who has brought back specimens from Australia), she might work for a few weeks, sitting for about three hours each day. Her lily commission took her an entire summer. “You have to look hard and really concentrate,” she says. “Patience is absolutely necessary.” But the slow process has never troubled Telzer. “It's therapeutic for me to draw these things,” she says.

Outside her MHC art class, Telzer has had less time for biological illustration and is looking forward to completing a new series of drawings at home during January Term. Her other interests include biology, philosophy, and fiction writing. While she had planned to major in economics, she has recently decided that her passions lie elsewhere. Art, she says, will always hold an important place in her life. She now sees it as ironic that she “hated drawing until I took that biological illustration class when I was thirteen.” She even resented her parents for their insistence that she take the class. But today, she expresses much gratitude for their encouragement and support.

Telzer says her years of honing her illustration talents have given her a new perspective. “I never before looked at a bird guide and fully appreciated that somebody drew all of those birds,” she says. Her own renderings of creatures from the feathered realm have so far been limited to an owl and a stuffed duck her mother once brought home from a museum. But she finds such subjects difficult. Judging from her impressive illustrations to date, Telzer will find her wings in the art world with or without birds.