Meet Our 2026 Poster Artist
Emma Svatos
Where Art and Science Meet in the Wild
“It’s a collection of magical moments, the little moments that create a snapshot of Corvallis,” Emma Svatos says of her selected image for the 2026 Corvallis Fall Festival. An aquatic ecologist by trade, Emma brings a scientist’s curiosity and an artist’s eye to her bold block prints, expressing the awe and wonder she discovers in flora and fauna.
A self-proclaimed “hobby hopper” in high school, Emma once believed science and art lived in separate worlds. In college her roommate introduced her to block printing, which suited her style. Emma was asked to participate in an art and science festival that challenged scientists to communicate complex issues through art. Creating block prints of wildfire-impacted trout and engaging people to interact with the art shifted her perspective. “That experience really changed things for me,” she says. “It showed me that art could be a way to share science and connect people to what’s happening in the natural world.”
Emma is drawn to block printing’s physicality and contrast. “I love the carving process, the kinetic aspect of it,” she says. “And the way light and dark interact adds so much depth.” For her, both art and science share a common thread, experimentation. “You are always learning, always making mistakes, and growing from them.”
Originally from Ohio, Emma’s path has taken her across the country, from graduate school in Colorado, where she started with images of trout, to research work on Cape Cod, where she expanded to coastal life, including seabirds, seaweed, and ocean creatures, before landing in Corvallis. “I had the chance to do summer research here five years ago, and it was just the most wonderful experience,” she says. “I fell in love with Corvallis. People here really value the intermingling of art and science.” Emma is inspired by the forests, streams, tidepools and the ocean here in the Pacific Northwest. She especially loves when viewers recognize a species in her artwork and share their own connection to it.
Emma is excited to be part of the Corvallis Fall Festival. “It really highlights Corvallis as a community,” she says. “So many people come together for one big art event. You see such a diversity of perspectives and get to bond over that.”
“I’m a scientist and I make art,” she says. “Why not?” What began as a push outside her comfort zone has become a new way to share her perspective, a journey reflected in her selection as the 2026 featured artist.
Biography written by Stacey Newman Weldon. Follow her on Instagram at @chocolateadventurementor.