From Paper to Steel: Vera Wong Fuses Science and Art at Cedar Creek

As a science illustrator, Vera Ming Wong exists at the intersection of art and science. She’s published quite a bit of work in books and magazines focused on ecology, biological diversity, and conservation. On top of that, she’s become known for her unique work with cut paper pieces, which depict environments, organisms, and even relationships between species in a single continuous piece of paper.

It’s this approach to illustration that earned the attention of Caitlin Potter and David Tilman, the Associate Director and Director respectively at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CCESR). Cedar Creek staff had developed what they call an “ecology walk” in the reserve, where visitors and tour groups could pass through three different biomes in a small area.

“Biomes are generally huge areas, like the coniferous forest or the prairie, but here it was these little tiny pieces. There’s a deciduous forest,” Vera describes. “A section of oak savanna…. A little further there’s pine trees and spruce trees–the coniferous forest.”

These three key biomes, although ecologically distinct, aren’t always easily recognizable to the untrained eye. So Caitlin and David came up with the idea of placing signs at the transitions between biomes–a gentle reminder to be more aware of your surroundings.

It was Caitlin who first thought of Vera’s paper cutting work, and brought her on board. The project’s emphasis on biomes as complete ecosystems, rather than individual organisms taken out of context, appealed to Vera.

“I got a species list for the prairie, of [organisms] that they have there,” says Vera. “They’re the scientists and they do know what’s most typical of the different biomes. But then I look at the list of names, and the names that jump out to me are the things that I have personal experience with.”

“It’s like, ‘I know that’s tall. I know this one’s short. This one’s too little, I can’t cut that small,’” she says. “It’s a combination of things.”

Vera’s cut paper practice requires much more planning than pen and paper or watercolor, she explains. “It’s not something I can take out on the trail and do in the woods, but I use the images that I collect when I’m out in natural areas.” Sometimes, Vera will be visited by native insects or investigated by a curious mouse. Those encounters stick in her mind, make themselves into her sketches and watercolor paintings, and eventually end up in the final cut paper pieces she makes.

One of the completed ecology walk signs, installed in the oak savanna biome at CCESR.

“Even though I do a lot with watercolor, my strength is more in black and white,” Vera says. “With cut paper, it’s sort of super black and white. It’s either there or not there, and I like the challenge of having it have to hang together. In block printing you can carve out isolated areas without any ink. With paper, all your pieces have to be connected to everything around them.”

“And that appeals to me as a metaphor,” Vera continues, “that everything is connected to everything. And at the same time, there’s the negative space and the positive space. The images or organisms that I put into my cut paper pieces can be defined by the spaces around them, or they can be the spaces that define their neighbors.

“That’s another way in which everything is interdependent as well as interconnected. That’s part of the idea I’m trying to get across.”

Some of Vera’s past work has drawn on this concept of interconnectedness to great effect, specifically pieces that focus on endangered species. “Some of the work that I’ve done shows the endangered species as part of a whole,” she says. “I try to convey the idea that those things can’t be taken out of this space.”

A draft of Vera’s oak savanna design on paper.

Since this was a completely new area of work for Vera, having CAFAC’s Heather Doyle on the team was a huge asset, she says. 

“Heather had worked with public art before where you have to be aware of where little fingers can get stuck,” says Vera. “That was a huge difference between this and everything else I had done.”

The different ways that visitors might interact with a three-dimensional piece was something Vera had never needed to consider so deeply before.

“It took weeks and weeks and weeks.I had to change the size of holes and redo a lot of the designs. Heather was really encouraging, which I found very helpful! Otherwise I’m like, ‘can I really do this?’” she laughs.

Once her reworked designs got the thumbs up, Heather took charge on the logistical side of the project. What material suits the environment the best? How thick should the metal sheets be? What’s the best way to frame each illustration? Some short months later, the first signs were installed in the ground at Cedar Creek.

“I actually had not thought of myself as a public artist before this,” says Vera. “This is actually my first foray into public art!

A team of CAFAC fabricators and CCESR staff works together to install one of the ecology walk signs.

The Cedar Creek project isn’t the first project Vera’s done with metal–but it’s by far the most ambitious.

“I did do one cut metal piece a long time ago. Maybe about 10 or 12 years ago, but it was small.” Vera holds up her hands. “How tall is that–15, 18 inches maybe? It’s the pages of an open book.”

This piece involved fine details cut into thin metal pages, and offered its own set of challenges. 

“For that piece, I found out that my work was too fine detailed for laser cutting,” says Vera. “But at the place where I bought the steel, they said it won’t work. It would heat up the metal too much and warp it–and so that’s when I heard about water jet cutting.”

Water jet cutting uses a high-pressure stream of water, sometimes mixed with abrasives, to get a clean cut on temperature-sensitive materials. For thin sheets of metal, it’s a more reliable option than laser cutting. Vera’s exposure to this technique came in handy for the Cedar Creek project, too.

‘When I was working with Heather to pull it all together, I told her about those water jet cutters,” says Vera, “And when they sent in a bid, it came in within the budget. Heather said they were great to work with. I’m really happy that after all these years, I could actually send more work their way!”

Vera stands beside one of the completed signs, smiling.