100 soil profiles set beneath a watercolor palette made using mudstone carved by boring clams. Image courtesy of Karen Vaughan.
KAREN VAUGHAN
Karen Vaughan is a researcher, educator, and creative who is passionate about sharing soil’s knowledge and beauty with all who are open to receive. She is a pigment forager and paint maker as well as an associate professor of pedology at the University of Wyoming. Karen has long been fascinated by color - from the information we gather from color to the way it makes us feel and the unique connections we all have with color. Through the Art of Soil, she crafts watercolor paint made with soil as a way to introduce an ecologically responsible alternative for your creative material needs. Karen tries her best to slip in a little earthy beauty and a lot of soil science love in all that she shares with the world.
Through a variety of social platforms, Karen shares soil’s educational resources – a major one is through For the Love of Soil instagram account and website. Together with Dr. Yamina Pressler (@wonderofsoil), Karen aggregates and shares all sorts of content created by us and others – from K-12 materials through upper division college course content. Through the Art of Soil, she share information and insights into the beautiful rainbow below – SOIL! She also enjoys developing and delivering lectures targeted to special audiences. These talks are linked on her website, where she also shares longer soil insights through a blog.
Soil samples collected via bike surrounds my home in southeastern Wyoming + a special sample of organic-rich smectitic clay from the Central Coast of California. Image courtesy of Karen Vaughan.
Prismatic soil structure sample. Image courtesy of Karen Vaughan.
PVC films coated in iron oxide and manganese oxide paint after burial in a highly reduced, wetland soil. The black/gray color is iron monosulfide that formed via microbially mediated reduction of iron and sulfur. The white zones are areas where the iron & manganese oxides were also reduced via microbial reduction. Image courtesy of Karen Vaughan.
Soil-based watercolor palettes inspired by climate. Image courtesy of Karen Vaughan.