Winter & Spring 2026 Events
Gallery openings, interviews, articles, and seminars. Please be in touch directly to schedule something for you. On instagram @JosieIselin.
The Mysterious World of Bull Kelp is always online at bullkelp.info. It is a web-based book.The Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Forest is now also a real book illustrated by Ellen Litwiller and published by Heyday Books. Released date is March 17th, 2026! Book events are listed below!
December 17 - March 15, 2026
The Curious World of Seaweed at Sutter County Museum
1333 Butte House Road, Yuba City, CA
Artists Lecture: Thursday, February 19th, 5:45 pm
Mysterious World of the Bull Kelp Forest BOOK TOUR
Josie and Ellen will be at a bookstore near you talking all things kelp! They will chat about their unique storytelling trajectory, how kelp is doing locally and throughout California, and how science and art are a powerful duo. Come with questions!
Thursday, March 19, 5:30-8:30 pm,
Proof Lab / Hook Fish, Tam Junction, Marin CA
Book Release Celebration! All are welcome. Get your signed copy!
Monday, March 26, 7 pm
Mrs Dalloways, Rockridge, Berkeley CA
Please RSVP HERE
Sunday, March 29th, 4 pm
Book Passages, Corte Madera, Book Launch
Ellen and Josie will discuss 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.
Wednesday, April 1, 7 pm
Kepler's Literary Foundation @ Kepler's Books, Menlo Park, CA
Josie Iselin & Jessica Riskin on Nature Science and Art
Monday, April 6, 7 pm
BookShop Santa Cruz
Co-Sponsored by the Seymour Marine Discovery Center.
Tuesday, April 21, 6:30 pm
Diesel: A Book Store, Santa Monica, CA
Kelp chat with Josie and Ellen and The Bay Foundation in LA! Learn about kelp restoration in Southern California
Saturday, May 2, 1 pm
Noyo Center for Marine Science, Fort Bragg, CA
Kelp chat with Josie and Ellen, in conversation with Sheila Seimans, director of Noyo Center.
Wednesday, May 6, 5:30 pm
Berkeley Public Library, North Branch, Berkeley, CA
Thursday, May 7, 7 pm
Blackbird Bookstore and Cafe, San Francisco, CA
Thursday, May 14, 6 pm
Books By the Bay, Sausalito, CA
BELOW ARE LINKS TO PRESENTATIONS, INTERVIEWS, AND PAST EVENTS
Five Foundational Kelp, 2nd Floor Lobby Mural, SFSU, Science and Engineering Innovation Center
19th Avenue at Holloway Ave, SF, CA
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.
