About
a
bou
Chicken Fur Studios is the creative workshop of Elissa Sorojsrisom.
Elissa is a freelance scientific illustrator and a joint PhD student in the Eaton Lab at E3B, Columbia University and the Commodore Matthew Perry Graduate Studies Program, New York Botanic Garden.
Elissa drew constantly throughout her childhood and decided to enroll in the Natural Science Illustration Certificate Program at Rhode Island School of Design while she was completing her Sc.B in Biology at Brown University. She graduated from both programs in 2016.
In college, Elissa studied the microstructure of bat wings in the Aeromechanics & Evolutionary Morphology Lab (PI Sharon Swartz), where she fell in love with morphology research. After graduation, she was a research assistant in the Edwards Lab, where she fell in love with plants. In 2018 she started working for the Peabody Museum of Natural History in the Vertebrate and Invertebrate Paleontology Divisions, where she fell in love with collections. Now, she’s combining all three passions as a graduate student, studying the evolution of life cycles in ferns and the development & morphology of gametophytes.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Chickens don’t have…?
Of course, we all know chickens don’t have fur (but silkies might make you think twice). The name ‘Chicken Fur’ comes from Elissa’s Thai heritage.
Thai has a limited vocabulary when compared to English. Many words have multiple meanings that are related to one another. For example, the word for “fur” in Thai loosely translates to any ‘soft animal covering’ which is most commonly ‘wool’, ‘fur’, or ‘animal hair’. When Elissa’s mother was dating her father, she used to refer to feathers as “chicken fur”, one literal translation of a handful of different Thai phrases used to refer to feathers.
ขน
ไก่
wool; fur = ขน ไก่ = chicken
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Published Illustrations*
*Elissa has been published under 2 prior last names: Martin and Johnson.
Journal Articles
Figure 3, digital reconstruction of ophiocistiod. In Rahman, Imran A., et al. “A new ophiocistioid with soft-tissue preservation from the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte, and the evolution of the holothurian body plan.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 286.1900 (2019): 20182792.
Figure 9a, fossil horseshoe crab reconstruction in pen & ink. In Bicknell, Russell DC, et al. “A new limulid genus from the Strelovec Formation ,(Middle Triassic, Anisian) of northern Slovenia.” Geological Magazine (2019): 1-14.
Figure 3a-c, digital rendering of a) vascular supply of the vertebral column, b) anterior artery spinal infarction, and c) vertebral artery dissection. In Montalvo, Mayra, et al. “Spinal Cord Infarction Because of Spontaneous Vertebral Artery Dissection: A Case Study.” Stroke 49.11 (2018): e314-e317.
Figure 1, graphite renderings of four bat heads. In Yohe, Laurel R., et al. “Vomeronasal and olfactory structures in bats revealed by diceCT clarify genetic evidence of function.” Frontiers in neuroanatomy 12 (2018): 32.
Figure 1, . In Obbens, Frank, et al. “Calandrinia holtumii (Portulacaceae), a new and unusual species from arid Western Australia.” Nutsyia 28 (2017): 217-223.
Cover, diagram of Cistanthe cf. celosioides and pipeline for obtaining gene sequences from targeted sequence capture. Systematic Biology, Volume 67, Issue 3, May 2018, Pages 367–383, https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syx078
Magazine & Newspaper Articles
Martin, Elissa. NASA Satellite and Exoplanets, digital rendering. In Ellie Gabriel. “Staring at the Sky: NASA Satellite Finds New Exoplanets.” Yale Scientific Magazine 92.1 (2019): 28-29.
Martin, Elissa. Immune System & Cancer Cells, digital rendering. In Sami Elrazky. “Rescuing the Immune System: The Defenses Cancers Raise Against Us, and How We Defeat Them.” Yale Scientific Magazine 92.1 (2018): 16-17.
Martin, Elissa. Linking Metabolism and Infection, digital rendering. In Le, Mindy. “How to Starve a Parasite: Exploring the Relationship Between Host Metabolism and Infectious Disease.” Yale Scientific Magazine 91.4 (2018): 22.
Martin, Elissa. Waves of Sound and Light, digital rendering. In Marus Sac. “Lumens & Hertz: An Electric Union of Light and Sound.” Yale Scientific Magazine 91.3 (2018): 21-22.
Martin, Elissa. Stitching the Nuclear Envelope, digital rendering. In Lukas Corey. “Stitch It Up: How a Little-Known Nuclear Envelope Protein Maintains the Integrity of Our Genome.” Yale Scientific Magazine 91.2 (2018): 15.
Martin, Elissa. Embryo-on-a-Chip, digital rendering. In Leslie Sim. “Placenta-on-a-Chip: Studying Preterm Birth & Drug Transfer During Pregnancy.” Yale Scientific Magazine 91.2 (2018): 28-29.
Martin, Elissa. Electron Lightsaber Clash, digital rendering. In Conor Johnson. “Real Life Lightsabers: Interacting Photons Could Make This Star Wars Fantasy a Reality.” Yale Scientific Magazine 91.2 (2018): 32-33.
Martin, Elissa. TPP Parachute into Bacterial Landscape, digital rendering. In Mindy Le. “Delivering the Inhibitor: Delivering Therapeutic Treatments to Cancer, Diabetes, and Neurodegenerative Targets.” Yale Scientific Magazine 91.1 (2018): 15.
Martin, Elissa. Brain-Gut Link, digital rendering. In Markus Sak. “Disease Double Whammy: Crohn’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease are Now Linked by the LRRK2 Gene.” Yale Scientific Magazine 91.1 (2018): 28.