Embracing the Untamed Garden

The hand-drawn visual essay, “Embracing the Untamed Garden,” is a collaborative project by a mother-daughter team. Claire Schen is a college professor at University at Buffalo, SUNY and Maddy Cherr is a college graduate in illustration from Rhode Island School of Design. The visual essay grew out of conversations during and since the COVID-19 pandemic about professional growth that suggested an unexpected convergence of creativity and research. Told equally in words and visuals, the essay focuses on shaping an authentic narrative of the professional self. The subject is the tension between risk-taking and growth on the one hand and the pressure for results and productivity on the other. The pandemic and growing unease about the value and purpose of higher education exacerbated this tension for learners and faculty. How do students and scholars craft their narrative about risks taken and detours made in education and careers? How do they define parameters of educational and professional lives in relation to personal ones? Describing the working dynamic, Cherr illustrated the visual essay and both authors generated the text. In addition, the images grew from conversations about how each visualized their challenges and observations.