Zoe Caron: artist & scientist

Mago is so excited to welcome local artist Zoe Caron as our 2nd artist in residence from July to October. 

Zoe Caron is a local Bay Area artist that specializes in biology-inspired work in watercolor, pen and pencil, and acrylic media. She focuses on highly detailed, realistic animals set against backdrops of dynamic pattern that bring the vibrancy of living forms to the paper.

Caron’s artistic practice is steeped in science. Her father is a professor of biology at the University of Southern California, and many of her early works feature drawings of the microbial world visible through a microscope in a lab. She also pulls inspiration from years of exploring the outdoors and capturing and photographing many kinds of wildlife. Caron attended UC Berkeley for her undergraduate degree, earning a BS and BA in plant biology and integrative biology. 

She has lived in California for nearly 25 years, and in the California Bay Areasince 2014. She strives to engage people with the web of life that sustains native ecosystems through the connective power of art. Following her graduation in 2018, she worked in developing sustainable agriculture technology while maintaining a vibrant side career in art and graphic design. However, in 2024, she left her biotech job to focus on advancing her career as a freelance artist and part time community college professor. She catalyzed the beginning of this new branch of her career through an artist in residency program at Mill Valley’s O’HanlonCenter for the Arts in August. Subsequently, she has been working as a guildmember of the Artist’s Guild of San Francisco, creating public art throughout the Bay, and showing at multiple museums of art in the region. She hopes that observers will experience some of the same childlike wonder for the natural world that inspires her when they view