Killackey Illustration
Natural science 🐡 & archaeological illustration 🏺 by Kathryn Killackey. NEH-Mellon Foundation Fellow ('23 - '24). Available for freelance #sciart. Lover of #books, #textiles, and absurdities. She/her
www.killackeyillustration.com
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationYou now have until the 15th of February to send in your applications for our upcoming workshop on historical approaches to the non-human, ran in collaboration with @northernenvhistory.bsky.social. Some fantastic applications in already, we look forward to reading yours! 🌿 🕷️ 🐀 🦠
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationWool-d you believe it? Wool is one of the UK's oldest materials, but there's still more to be learned! Don't be sheepish, join Monica Stenzel and discover the past, present and future of wool. 📆 Feb 25 6pm 📍 Linnean Society
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationI’m advising an illustrated paleo book and a significant part of the work has been saying “do not use that reference, it’s ai.”
- Hard to pick just one. Maybe “NO (NEGATIVE)”. On the other hand, my anchor is definitely dragging.
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationOur volume on Stone Age clothing is now online and completely open access: Jöris, O., Dietrich, O., Risch, R., & Meller, H. (Hrsg.). (2026). A Stone Age History of Clothing: Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 26. bis 28. September 2024 in Halle (Saale). doi.org/10.11588/pro...
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationHilariously, a coyote walked behind a San Francisco reporter as she was doing a segment on the mountain lion. 🤣
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationSome inspiration for a cold day during bleak times. Half million year old handaxes from Boxgrove, Sussex, laid out for a photoshoot with Dr Claire Harris at the @britishmuseum.bsky.social #MondayMotivation 🦣🏺
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationIf you are in #NYC next week, come to “Weaving Dreams/#Quilting Community” a panel discussion-sewing demo featuring textile artists/writers/organizers who have inspired me. You’ll get swag to embellish!! #quiltsky #Artsky #Blacksky Pls register by 1/27! www.eventbrite.com/e/weaving-dr...
- Reposted by Killackey Illustration"My husband complains about the cold," the man said. "Can you teach me a spell to keep him warm?" "I can teach you to bind hair into a net to catch heat," the wizard said, "using arcane counting and a pair of fine wands." After a while, the man said "Isn't this knitting?" "This, too, it's magic."
- Blurry coyote going about their business, no time to chat, in SoCal yesterday.
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationThis is taken from a comic I made back in 2022 called "How to Read an Aztec Comic" and these panels are sadly more relevant than ever. You can read the full thing here: escholarship.org/uc/item/8cq5...
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- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationAs with all Canadian petitions, don't forget to check your email after signing to verify the signature!
- petition to protect gender affirming care in canada. go fuckin sign it www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationIf anyone would like to write about the value of this registry to Canadian environmental history for our website, get in touch! Our Contributor Guidelines: niche-canada.org/guidelines-f... #cdnhist #cdnheritage #envhist #envhum
- Nation-building isn’t just about infrastructure and resource extraction. It’s about culture. It’s about history. It’s about our stories, and the places that tell them. This is the worst time imaginable to shut down the Register of Historic Places. nationaltrustcanada.ca/online-stori...
- All Canadian archaeologists and anthropology departments should be writing Parks Canada to protest this decision and press them to find a solution. #archaeology 🏺
- Nation-building isn’t just about infrastructure and resource extraction. It’s about culture. It’s about history. It’s about our stories, and the places that tell them. This is the worst time imaginable to shut down the Register of Historic Places. nationaltrustcanada.ca/online-stori...
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationSharing to #SciArt feed for all the CSUMB Science Illustration alumni
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationIt's #PenguinAwarenessDay! Today we consider the penguin, their excellent vibes, and the threats they face. We can also enjoy these illustrations by Vieillot and Oudart in 'La Galerie des Oiseaux' (1820) of a Gentoo and Crested penguin.
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationReading Carolyn Dean’s terrific new book “Inside Abstraction: Interpreting Inka Visual Culture”. I love her exploration of this All- T’uqapu Unku (a textile like made for the Inka ruler) as a Gell like “mind trap” with all sorts of “unfinished business” given its carefully non-pattern chaos.
- Where my love for Gorey (and Bellairs began). I can still envision the exact spot on my hometown library’s shelves where they lived.
- 82% funded! Thanks to everyone who has donated so far.
- I know everyone is spread thin but, if you can, please donate to this Go Fund Me for Luis Callisaya’s wife, Lourdes. Archaeological colleagues, including @aroddick.bsky.social , are raising funds for the medical care she needs after a devastating hit & run. More details on the Go Fund Me page. 1/5
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationKnitting Nurses! Prompted by @sarahebull.bsky.social yesterday I poked around #NewberryLibrary for 20th c. knitting patterns. These WWII Red Cross directions for a MAN'S SOCK from May 1942 looks to have been used by nurses or housewives to create at least 13 pairs for the war effort! #FiberArts
- C’mon Ottawa/Ontario/Hamilton. I don’t want to live in 19th c London anymore.
- www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... what the hell
- Related:
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationThere are plenty of Asian natural history artists unknown to the world. You might not able to search their works even you search their name. But still, their artworks were phenomenal and part of my childhood 20 years ago.
- I know everyone is spread thin but, if you can, please donate to this Go Fund Me for Luis Callisaya’s wife, Lourdes. Archaeological colleagues, including @aroddick.bsky.social , are raising funds for the medical care she needs after a devastating hit & run. More details on the Go Fund Me page. 1/5
- Luis is a Bolivian colleague and friend. I first worked with him in 2004 when he was an undergraduate and I was just entering Berkeley’s phd program. He’s gone on to become an excellent professional archaeologist, working at Tiwanaku and all over Bolivia. 2/5
- Andy, our daughter, & I lived at his parents’ home while doing fieldwork in 2024. His father is an archaeologist as well, having working with many of the large excavation projects at Tiwanaku from the ‘60s on. He has stories! 3/5
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View full threadLuis and his family have already gone through a major medical emergency in the last couple years with his sister, and now are facing a new round of massive medical bills. If you can spare anything, from a dollar on up, please do. Dollars go a long way in Bolivia. Thanks. 5/5
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationRoad builders in Brazil dismantle ancient coastal middens in the 1940s-'50s. Random bones and artifacts sent to local museum, boxes stored for decades without being studied. Now, researchers finally look and discover oldest-known whale harpoons, pointing to Indigenous open-sea whaling 5000 yrs ago!
- In a new study, researchers from @uab.cat claim people have been whaling for almost 5,000 years – and that the earliest evidence comes from the warm coastal waters of Brazil, not the Arctic. www.science.org/content/arti... @science.org
- Reposted by Killackey Illustration#DHmakes doesn't need to be advanced work, nor have anything to do w/DH (digital humanities)/your day job. Maybe you want to try some new art/craft in 2026? Or already do one & would enjoy supportive community? Please join us by using the hashtag! Feed of tagged posts here: tinyurl.com/dhmakesfeed +
- #DHmakes is digital humanists (& other folks doing knowledge-work anywhere: library/academic-ish, or on your own!) sharing art/craft/making that has all or partial analog/physical components (ie not code/sites as those had more understanding/sharing in DH already). literaturegeek.com/2025/12/31/w...
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationIt's always fun to speculate about historical depictions of animals! I feel like this is something @tetzoo.bsky.social would be interested in/know about. I love his article about what dodos looked like: tetzoo.com/blog/2020/7/...
- Reposted by Killackey Illustration70+ free printable "How to Report ICE" zines with info on the SALUTE protocol and local hotline numbers for all over the country! Including some in Spanish! There is an info sheet on how to fold and cut the zines and a form to request a zine for your area. drive.google.com/drive/folder...
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationLook at this flat. You will not regret it. www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/01/ron-...
- New motto: “We’ll that’s weird, better draw a picture of it” (From the post below, the last in a wonderful thread on western science’s discovery of living coelacanths.)
- Useful reference for #SciArt! 🐡
- I just stumbled upon featherbase, a database of feather pictures from a bunch of bird species.🪶 So pretty! www.featherbase.info/zh/home
- Two songs that I’ve picked up from recent tv/film and that make for an excellent mini dance party once everyone else is out the door in the morning: “Hate that you know me” by the Bleachers (from Platonic) “Punkrocker” by the Teddybears, featuring Iggy Pop (Superman)
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationI'm not even joking about knitting and letterpress and weaving and friends being the next evolutionary step for digital humanities tech. #DHmakes
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationGreat post about generative AI. Happy Holidays. Don't say I never gave you anything. anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationLast Thursday, the first Journal Issue of the year (Vol. 57 No. 2) was sent out! This issue highlights the breadth of contemporary natural science illustration—from personal sketchbook practice to anatomy education, climate-science communication, art history, and bioarchaeological reconstruction.
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationI'm so proud of this article, based on my MA thesis research. This article looks at the uneven implementation of nonbinary gender identity recognition in Ontario. #anthropology #onpoli #ontario #nonbinary #queer
- A person in my craft group ( @ldeeber.bsky.social) was just grumbling about Nicole Kidman’s unconvincing effort at tablet weaving in the Northman. We decided there needed to be a tumblr style series of posts dedicated to documenting bad textile-ing in film.
- #FilmSky, a quick question; what is the pettiest thing you have had to be annoyed at a film? I ask because I am watching The Gift from 2000, and the main character does divination with Zener Cards, which are not the same thing as Tarot at all. Why go for a more boring looking option?
- Reposted by Killackey Illustration#FilmSky, a quick question; what is the pettiest thing you have had to be annoyed at a film? I ask because I am watching The Gift from 2000, and the main character does divination with Zener Cards, which are not the same thing as Tarot at all. Why go for a more boring looking option?
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationChickens! Oh my Lord! Modern egg hybrids that didn’t exist until the 1990s turning up in Tudor England, on Mars, in the 1930s in Central America! My dudes, you do not just order ‘six chicken, assorted’ from the animals people!
- #FilmSky, a quick question; what is the pettiest thing you have had to be annoyed at a film? I ask because I am watching The Gift from 2000, and the main character does divination with Zener Cards, which are not the same thing as Tarot at all. Why go for a more boring looking option?
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationMy article on the likely influence of the experiments of polymath Thomas Young on the early abstract art of Hilma af Klint is now published & open access at Leonardo / MIT Press 🎉 direct.mit.edu/leon/article...
- Since we’re all desperate for a positive distraction today, I guess I’ll share some exciting news I’ve been sitting on for a few months… I made an accidental discovery in art history & after four years of researching and reworking, it’s finally getting published! direct.mit.edu/leon/article...
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationHellloooo wow how do people find time for social media these days. And welcome to my TAG talk! Which was in fact about just that “the existential panic of keeping a social media based project like @trowelblazers.bsky.social alive when we can barely keep our heads above water: a DEI Story”
- Reposted by Killackey IllustrationLichens (Xanthoria, Physcia and others) on a graffiti paint chip. On lakeside cliffs, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends #graffiti
- Reposted by Killackey Illustration2 things: 1) Joel is right here in that AI is a "restorative" nostalgia (from Svetlana Boym) machine, in that it produces a past that never existed & tries to drag it into the present 2) the crusade imagery is violent white supremacy (see next post)
