Ospreys in the Outfield is May’s first published book. She currently works as a Freelance Artist.
In addition to being a freelance artist, May is an amateur photographer. Her photography is a large piece of her artwork also, as it is the inspiration of her pieces. For Ospreys in the Outfield, she travelled to Sanibel regularly to photograph the area and it’s wildlife. She photographs in the style she’d like to create art, needing images with good detail to do her illustrations. She took countless images of ospreys for the artwork in the book, many pictures of mangroves and the sky at Ding Darling to serve as the backdrop for the book and even borrowed some images from another intern for the illustrations of ospreys catching fish. The baseball field relied partially on May’s imagination and partially on real images of the field.
A few of May’s passion projects include her “Sanibel” series dedicated to birds including an anhinga, a heron, and a Roseate Spoonbill which happens to be her favorite bird. She loves to paint and uses watercolor for the series. She sells items like t-shirts and stickers at Ding Darling. She’s also done pro-bono work for JN Ding Darling through the Friends of Ding Darling Wildlife Society, creating a bus mock-up project in support of the Wulfert Bayou Restoration Project. May is very excited to report Ding Darling was able to acquire the land and will be opening the area in 2025.
You can view more of May’s work at her website: www.mayjernigan.com
