Lara Call Gastinger has her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in plant ecology from Virginia Tech. She has been awarded two gold medals (2007, 2018) at the Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art shows in London and her work is in the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation. Her artwork appears in the latest Peterson’s Field Guide to Mushrooms and ASBA’s Botanical Art Techniques Handbook. She has gained international recognition with the creation of her “perpetual journal” that has inspired naturalists around the world to start their own.