{"id":79737,"date":"2026-10-07T09:33:53","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T16:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=79737"},"modified":"2026-10-07T09:33:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T16:33:53","slug":"jacks-in-a-flash-bobby-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/jacks-in-a-flash-bobby-long\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacks in a Flash: Bobby Long"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bobby Long<\/span><\/b>, associate teaching professor of visual communication, spent two years capturing details of the inhabitants of the Sonoran Desert after being contacted by author, ecologist and ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan to illustrate the book he was writing. <\/span>\u201cSonoran Desert Bestiary: A More-than-Nature History\u201d<\/span><\/a> reflects on why human imaginations, over the ages, have reached into this realm of seldom-seen but often-intuited animals. Long\u2019s work is rooted in biology, often making small lifeforms feel larger and humorously approachable. The NAU Review asked him a few Qs ahead of the book\u2019s launch.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell me about \u201cSonoran Desert Bestiary: A More-than-Natural History.\u201d<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

Our book is a richly illustrated intersection of folklore and storytelling, natural history and desert ecology, with a focus on small, unseen or underrepresented forms of life. This menagerie includes creatures whose existence lies largely in traditional story and belief, as well as creatures whose life cycles are so cryptic they seem mythic. Gary Nabhan wrote in-depth chapters about 12 different creatures and a ton of short prose poems that cover even more biological ground. In response to Gary\u2019s writing, I created over 65 pieces of artwork for the inside and outside of the book: some full-page color illustrations, some grayscale drawings and many more visual surprises.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/a>What is your favorite illustration?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

It\u2019s difficult to choose one favorite child, so I may have to cop out and mention a couple. I\u2019m a relentless self-critic, but I\u2019m especially happy with how my desert leaf-cutter ant, bark scorpion, Pinacate beetle and five-toed mole Lizard turned out. Can you tell I like bugs and oddities?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How long did this project take?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

I spent close to two years on my half of the project. Most of the images are detailed pencil drawings, some of which I digitally painted to add color. There\u2019s also some small vector art to help introduce each chapter. Along the way, I made more ideation sketches than I\u2019ve ever made for any other project.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No generative artificial intelligence was used in the making of this artwork or this book as a whole. Instead, we did our best to use our heads and hands to commit stories, told with words and drawn marks, into the warm depths of flat paper. And no animals were harmed in the making of this book.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSonoran Desert Bestiary: A More-than Nature History\u201d will be presented from 6-7 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Bright Side Bookshop, 18 N. San Francisco Street, followed by a book signing and a Q&A session. This event is free and open to the public. <\/span><\/i>RSVP<\/span><\/i><\/a> in advance is requested through the <\/span><\/i>Bright Side Bookshop website<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bobby Long, associate teaching professor of visual communication, spent two years capturing details of the inhabitants of the Sonoran Desert after being contacted by author, ecologist and ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan to illustrate the book he was writing. \u201cSonoran Desert Bestiary: A More-than-Nature History\u201d reflects on why human imaginations, over the ages, have reached into…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3019,"featured_media":79743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1830],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jacks-in-a-flash"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79737"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79744,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79737\/revisions\/79744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}