About

I knew two things when I was 6 years old: I loved to draw, and I loved getting dirty in my quest to find animals. Not much has changed since then.

Now parading as a full-fledged adult, I am a wildlife biologist at an environmental consulting firm in Florida moonlighting as an artist of all things nerdy and kawaii.

Occasionally, I get to marry my two interests when I’m monitoring bald eagle nests - there’s a lot of time for sketching! Most of the time I’m doing demanding field work slogging through a marsh or searching for tortoises, but when I get the chance I love to sit on my deck and draw or sew plushies while I watch my chickens run around in the yard. Their names are Beep, Claptrap, Gams and Pickles, two pairs of siblings that will do anything for a worm!

I used to go by “ErikaLo” on Etsy and that’s still my store link. The first picture is a fantastic rendition of me and my girls in my Duplica cosplay! (another of my favorite hobbies) This wonderful artwork was made by Janisha; she’s open for commissions on Instagram (IG) @JanishaColors and is the absolute best!

Sam Wood took the photo version - this set of photos is my most favorite pictures that exist of me to date, I can’t gush enough about how talented Sam is! Duplica is from one of the first episodes of Pokemon and that hair is out of my comfort zone for sure, but Sam made me feel comfortable enough with my derpy dittos to make magic happen. If you’re local and looking for cosplay photos, Sam can be found on Instagram @the_optional_studios or on Flickr.com/photos/theoptionalstudios.

The next photo is of me and my girl, Beep. The chickens used to come inside the house more often, but they just poop too much and try to eat every crumb of dirt and who knows what crafting fibers that fall to the ground!

Finally we have a not-so-glamourous photo of myself at my day job as a wildlife biologist. In Florida, gopher tortoises are threatened and an important part of our ecosystem, so companies have to pay to the tortoise burrows before they do any construction project. In the picture, I had been directing the backhoe operator for quite some time, following the twists and turns of this fellow’s burrow. Almost 20ft down, we finally found him and he was able to be relocated to a safe new home! (but not before I could give a boop on the snoot, of course)