Claudia McGehee

I like to dig. I dig in gardens. I dig through research materials. I even dig while creating illustrations, where scratchings from a X-acto blade create wood-cut like images.

All this digging reveals stories, often inspired from history and nature.

Some days I write about pictures. Some days I draw about words.

My mission is to create art and writings that inspire and connect children of all ages with their natural world.

I am an author/illustrator of three awarding winning non-fiction picture books "A Tallgrass Prairie Alphabet", "A Woodland Counting Book", "Where Do Birds Live?", all from University of Iowa Press. “My Wilderness- An Alaskan Adventure” a historical fiction picture book based on a true adventure story about American painter Rockwell Kent and his son Rocky was published this spring by Sasquatch Books (Seattle 2015).

"North Woods Girl" (Minnesota Historical Society Press, written by Aimee Bissonette and illustrated by me) will be released September 2015.

My distinctive scratchboard style can also be found nationally in museum exhibits, packaging, advertising, and magazines.

A native of Washington state, I earned degrees in anthropology, with a focus in archaeology (she likes to dig, remember?) and graphic design. I also studied natural history at Oxford University in England. I live in Iowa City, Iowa, sharing a house on a hill with my husband and daughter, and two studio cats.