©2025 Maggie McLain
Please do not use image without permission from the artist. Do not feed to generative AI.
12″x18″
Original file made on Procreate, Giclee Print, 200 GSM paper
In collaboration with Gavin Dehnert, Emerging Contaminants Scientist, University of Wisconsin Aquatic Sciences Center, Sea Grant and Water Resources Institutes.
All things are interconnected, and nothing can exist outside of itself. I was tasked with exploring this idea, how water connects ecosystems, and how the water that surrounds us carries contaminants. These contaminants, small as they are, have a massive impact on the ecosystems they infect. They travel, through the water, onto plants, into fish, moving their way up through food chains in a sickening show of power. They reach the top of the food chain, in this case, a Bald Eagle, and infiltrate the predator’s bloodstream. Obviously, this impacts the animal’s health, and the death of a predator is the death of an ecosystem. Prey animals overtake the area, primary producers are all but devoured, and a once beautiful biosphere is depleted. Maintaining clean ecosystems is lifesaving, and tracking the movement of contaminants is the first step.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
McLain is an undergraduate student at UW- Stevens Point, they’re majoring in Wildlife Ecology with minors in both Art and Captive Wildlife. And while their art tends to focus more on fantasy and storytelling, they were more than excited to be able to combine their passion for conservation and their love for art.
Instagram: w1zardt0wer
ABOUT THE WATER PARTNER
I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Miami (Florida) with a B.S. in marine science and B.S. in biology, with minors in mathematics and chemistry in 2015. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in integrated biology where I studied aquatic toxicology. Following Ph.D. I was a postdoctoral fellow with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services where I helped set recommended health groundwater standards including PFAS standards. Following the fellowship, I began as an Emerging contaminant Scientist with Wisconsin Sea Grant and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a scientist, I conduct research on the impacts of emerging contaminants (PFAS, Pesticides, Microplastics) on aquatic ecosystems.
MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH SUPPORT FROM
