Melanie Thongs is a wildlife/nature artist who got started by taking a self-paced Nature Journaling course from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She then immediately signed up for the Natural Science Illustration certificate program through the Rhode Island School of Design, which she completed in three years. Her art combines natural beauty and aesthetic appeal with scientific accuracy as she seeks to share the wonder and fascination she experiences in the natural world and while creating the likenesses of both plants and animals.