FRAN MARMILLION
Fran Marmillion was born and raised in New Orleans, LA and a love of art and the natural world blossomed at a young age. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a BFA in Studio Art and went on to be involved with several creative projects including illustrating children’s books. Her love of animals and environmental advocacy never wavered though, and her career in the sciences began in 2017 when she started working on whale watching boats in Seward, AK.
This job would prompt Fran to travel and “migrate” with the humpbacks, as she followed them from their summer feeding grounds in Alaska to their Hawaiian winter birthing grounds. She worked for several seasons narrating whale watches here on Maui, educating guests on the fascinating world of humpbacks before accepting a position as a Marine Naturalist at the Maui Ocean Center. Fran hopes that by living in harmony and reciprocity with the ocean and its inhabitants, we can both protect and preserve the natural world while also enriching our own lives. ELIZABETH HIRD
has a Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Maui Hands Gallery at the Hyatt Regency in Lahaina and her watercolors and oil paintings are in collections both on Maui and the mainland. She writes: “I worked and studied as a wildlife biologist and conservationist and thos
e years sparked and shaped my creative expression as an artist. I have worked in many mediums and styles but, most recently, I have been inspired by my experiences in the ocean. Each day I swim and record footage and photos of sea turtles, manta rays, dolphins and other sea life. I traveled to Tonga twice to photograph humpback whales. I feel extraordinarily lucky to have the good fortune to witness the majesty and brilliance of the ocean and it’s creatures and to then have the joy of creating paintings where I hope to transmit the beauty of the beings that dwell there.”