Jessie KB Art & Photography

01/18/2026

I saw a Pacific electric ray! They can pack 45 V of electricity to stun prey or defend themselves. Today had such beautiful conditions for a solo SUP into the kelp beds ✨🦭

10/16/2025

My PhD research about 🦭seal sleep 💤 has recently resurfaced in some reels so I thought I’d share this video I made to describe the research here. This uses custom visualizations I created to explain the science and collaborative process behind doing animal research on how seals sleep at sea, as well as the significance of this work for understanding sleep patterns in other mammals, including humans. Enjoy and feel free to read the paper at the link in my bio.

11/09/2023

So fun to collaborate with Ventana Surfboards & Supplies and Western Flyer Foundation on this woodburning of a turtle, now inlaid on the deck of the boat that took Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck to the Sea of Cortez!

08/13/2021

So happy to finally share this music video that I animated for Kool & the Gang's new single, Pursuit of Happiness. Honored to have been a part of the process & feature the work of friends & activists working for justice in LA.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EaVTDSeZzlM&feature=youtu.be

“Pursuit of Happiness”
Performed by Kool & the Gang featuring Walt Anderson and Balewa Muhammad

RIP Dennis "DT" Thomas and Ronald "Khalis" Bell 🖤

Written by Ronald “Khalis” Bell, Balewa Muhammad, Walt Anderson, Celina Gray, Kool & the Gang
© 2021 KTFA Entertainment, Inc.

Music Video Produced by One Foot Productions and Mama Googa Show.

Animated and Edited by Jessica Kendall-Bar of Jessie KB Art & Photography
About: https://jessiekb.com


Featuring:

-We the Movement LA & Students Deserve

Non-profit organizing peaceful Black Lives Matter Protests in LA. Featured We the Movement activists: Jenna Nolen, Arin Ashley, Satomaa, Persephone Rose Anasi, and Kalila Williams. Footage courtesy of Jessica Chappe

About: https://wethemovementla.squarespace.com/
Donate: https://www.gofundme.com/f/we-the-movement-la

- LA CAN (Los Angeles Community Action Network)

LA CAN works in LA's Skid Row with people facing poverty to create & discover opportunities to ensure that we all have a voice & power in the decisions that directly affect us.

About: https://cangress.org/about-us/
Donate: https://cangress.org/donate/

- Walker - Scientist

Black STEMinist Science Communicator and PhD Candidate at Duke University.
About: https://www.imariwalker.com/
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoiqwAaGW6-xANs3XOCO_Pg

Music video by Kool & The Gang performing Pursuit Of Happiness. (P) 2021 KTFA Entertainment Inc.http://vevo.ly/VBp9YJ

07/25/2021

Trying out some stylized looks for our elephant seal animation- what do y'all think? Suggestions? Should it be even more stylized with just the seal in an outline or..? Let me know your thoughts!

07/21/2021

The first chapter of my dissertation was ~ conditionally accepted ~ to ! Never imagined that the first publication of my thesis would be about animation, let alone in the field of computer science. Time to share some cool facts about whales and data visualization at
!

Stay tuned for the full paper and check out our webpage and Github, where there are open-source tutorials and scripts to get you started on visualizing your own data: link in bio

https://www.jessiekb.com/artforscicomm

Thank you to my co-authors for their scientific expertise and mentorship: Nicolas Kendall-Bar, Roxanne Beltran, Gitte McDonald, Angus G. Forbes, Paul J. Ponganis, Cassondra Williams, Markus Horning, Allyson Hindle, Holger Klinck, Ari S. Friedlaender, David Wiley, Daniel Costa & Terrie M. Williams

Thank you to for the beautiful music accompaniment.

Thank you to our funders

06/03/2021

4 years ago my best friend and I hopped into the ocean, dozens of miles from shore, to meet this amazingly cute and awkward critter flopping its fins at the surface. ☀️🐟

03/18/2021

I am excited to announce the opening of our virtual data visualization gallery tomorrow, Friday March 19th, 1-3PM. This quarter, I led a collective with students at the undergraduate and graduate levels in art, ecology, computer science, astronomy, and game design where they collaborated with scientists to create compelling data visualizations. I am so proud of their final projects, which span a wide range from interactive websites developed with and with to beautiful illustrations and animations constructed in , , and .

Please stop by the virtual gallery (link in bio) tomorrow 1-3PM to congratulate a student on their project and to stumble around our magical underwater virtual space.

03/17/2021

Check out this graphical abstract for our newest paper, published today in Science Advances, which tells the story of skinny seals sacrificing safety for sustenance. Read this article to learn more:
https://theconversation.com/risk-versus-reward-on-the-high-seas-skinny-elephant-seals-trade-safety-for-sustenance-156824

And go here to read the paper:
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/12/eabd9818

Elephant seals balance foraging opportunities with predation risk by adjusting when they rest - seals in better body condition rest more during the night when the risk of visually-based predation is lower! Check out the full paper by Roxanne Beltran and colleagues:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lJ9RLoOFIVFD3NoYF-m2XOaEvl2wmJV9/view?usp=sharing

University of California Natural Reserve System, UC Santa Cruz Science, Año Nuevo State Park

03/17/2021

Here is an animation I created to accompany our new paper, published today in Science Advances :

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/12/eabd9818

We measured state-dependent risk-taking in elephant seals throughout their 7-month migrations and found that skinny seals sacrifice safety for sustenance. Our study was made possible through the long-term dataset of the Costa Lab at UC Santa Cruz and our collaboration with Año Nuevo Research and Año Nuevo State Park

Read about our study in a story I wrote with co-author Roxanne Beltran for the Conversation, where you can check out the full data-visualization animation:

https://theconversation.com/risk-versus-reward-on-the-high-seas-skinny-elephant-seals-trade-safety-for-sustenance-156824

I was lucky enough to work with Danielle Dube's beautiful illustrations, created as a result of her art-science residency with the Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History.

Music composed and performed by the one and only Connor Vance.