Madison Mayfield is a natural history artist, taxidermist, educator, & museum professional based in Seattle, WA. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology: Ecology, Evolution & Conservation as well as a certificate in Natural History Illustration from the University of Washington. For years, Madison has been creating science art as a freelance illustrator. She has also spent several years working as an art educator in museum spaces, teaching scientific illustration workshops at the Field Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Puget Sound Museum, and she is passionate about introducing anyone and everyone to the world of science illustration and nature journaling. Her own personal art practice is driven by her work in museum collections and often focuses on birds as specimens.

In 2016, Madison moved to Brisbane, Australia where she began working under the direction of Alison Douglas and Todd Knight as a natural history preparator at the Queensland Museum. Her work at the museum involved the creation of taxidermy mounts and the preparation of specimens for the science research collection. After moving back to the states in 2020, Madison worked at the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History as the Education and Outreach Director and now finds herself back in the world of preparing specimens in her role as the Ornithology Collections Manager at the Burke Museum of Natural History. She often works to share her passion for specimen work and taxidermy through workshops open to the public. Madison also works as a research tech in Dr. Alejandro Rico-Guevara’s Behavioral Ecophysics lab studying hummingbirds. She is an avid birder and truly loves nothing more than watching and drawing birds!