Winter & Spring 2026 Events
Gallery openings, interviews, articles, and seminars. Please be in touch directly to schedule something for you. Josie's Vimeo channel is HERE and on instagram @JosieIselin.
The Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Forest will be a real book illustrated by Ellen Litwiller and published by Heyday Books. It will be released on March 17th, 2026! This page will be updated with Book Events as they are scheduled. See below.
The Mysterious World of Bull Kelp is always online at bullkelp.info. It is a web-based book doing a deep dive into the world of bull kelp and the diversity of creatures and other seaweeds it supports. New pages about kelp restoration and aquaculture are now live. New updated Sunflower Sea Star Page too! Check it out!
Five Foundational Kelp, 2nd Floor Lobby Mural
San Francisco State University, Science and Engineering Innovation Center
19th Avenue at Holloway Ave, SF, CA
December 17 - February 21, 2026
The Curious World of Seaweed at Sutter County Museum
1333 Butte House Road, Yuba City, CA
Exhibition Reception: Friday January 23rd, 5-7 pm
Artists Lecture: Thursday, February 19th, 5:45 pm
Sunday, February 1, 3-7 pm,
The Dance Palace, Point Reyes Station
Help The Kelp! Community kelp celebration and screening of Sequoias of the Sea
Join us for a vibrant community celebration uniting film, art, and food to raise awareness of Northern California’s disappearing kelp forests, building on the efforts of many local groups up and down the coast working to bring visibility to this urgent issue. The event will feature a screening of Sequoias of the Sea, local Hog Island oysters, a showcase of kelp-inspired art from West Marin artists, and presentations from ocean groups, including Above/Below, working to protect the region’s uniquely rich and fragile coastline.
Sunday, March 29th, 4 pm, 2026
Book Passages, Corte Madera, Book Launch
The Mysterious World of The Bull Kelp Forest
Come hear Ellen and Josie dicuss their process of building this new book about the iconic bull kelp forests just offshore, and learn what you can do do help support bull kelp forest recovery and ocean resilience.
BELOW ARE LINKS TO PRESENTATIONS, INTERVIEWS, AND PAST EVENTS
2025
San Juan Islands Museum of Art: Kelp! Reverberations, Artist's Interview
A collabortive exhibit with Ken Pearce, Jonathan Kawchuck, Betsy Peabody, and Marianna Leuschel depicting the kelp forests of the Salish Sea with sound, sculpture, banners, and graphics.
Art and Algae: An Ocean Intimacy. A Story in Four Parts
Essay published in Applied Phycology, volume 5, 2024, issue 1
2022
836M Gallery - KELP!
Video introduction to the exhibit HERE
836 Montgomery St, San Francisco, CA 94133
An installation featuring the artwork of five women artists whose practice honors, specifically, the bull kelp that dominates the ocean waters of the Marin, Sonoma and Mendocino coastline. The exhibit will act as a nexus for programming around kelp-inspired issues concerning Northern California and beyond.
Art on the Beach, Lincoln City, Oregon
Volunteer rakers created 100 yard long sand art depicting bull kelp and sea otter. Information was shared with the public revealing the crucial importance of kelp forests to our oceans and the interdependence of kelp and sea otter.
2021
Earthshot Prize Documentary Series
Revive Our Oceans Episode 4, three-minute segment.
Come snorkel in the kelp forest with Josie and on into Josie's studio as Sir David Attenborough narrates the story of the bull kelp forest of the California coast as an introduction to global kelp forest issues.
Beaty Biodiversity Museum, UBC, Vancouver, Canada
The Curious World of Seaweed,
The exhibit features forty prints, large and small, from the portfolios that generated the research for the book, The Curious World of Seaweed. An extensive website brings captions, videos, and explanations to your fingertips, truly a marriage of art and science. Specimens from Beaty's extensive algal collection will be on view in cases below the artwork.
