Laura K. Brubaker - Imagery

A bit more about the artist - her work, hobbies and life lived in the Upper Rogue community.

After hearing a podcast in 2016 about a "Seed Library" where gardeners check out seed in the spring and check back in saved seeds in the fall - inspiration struck and the Shady Cove Seed Library was launched. Now with over 25 volunteers and 200+ members, the Seed Library which is hosted at the Library in Shady Cove, provides free seeds and educational opportunities to gardeners and native plant enthusiasts in the Upper Rogue. The private Facebook Group, Shady Cove Gardening & Seed Library admits members from the region and endeavors to encourage gardening and seed saving. Almost 10 years of giving away free seeds to the community!

Medical Illustrations - specializing in ophthalmology education and clinical trial protocols.

Animations - training physicians and lay audiences about advances in biotechnology and clinical trial protocols.

About the artist -

Laura has lived in the Upper Rogue since 2010. Though her connection to the region began in childhood, she spent many seasons at Union Creek with family, developing a close familiarity with its waterways, flora, and wildlife.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Colorado State University, she moved to Chicago with her husband, Kurt. While he managed a research lab at Northwestern University, Laura pursued a master’s degree in Biomedical Visualization at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The couple later relocated to North Carolina, settling near Duke University in the Research Triangle Park region, where they began raising their family. After the birth of their third child, they returned to Southern Oregon, ultimately finding their way back to the Upper Rogue.

In 2010, the Brubakers founded their own business, Bridge Over Brook,Inc., https://www.linkedin.com/in/visualeyeslb/
and have since worked collaboratively as a medical writer and visual artist team. Their work often intersects, supporting ophthalmology research, developing educational materials for teaching hospitals, and helping train clinical audiences through clear visual communication. They take their scientific mindset into every aspect of life and are continuously setting up experiments and trying out new ideas in their daily lives.

Their home is set across a rugged mountainside in the Upper Rogue, where deeply shaded canyons of fern, thimbleberry, and yew give way to sunbaked, south-facing lava slopes of buckbrush and chaparral. The property was once considered unbuildable due to its isolation from utilities and infrastructure. From 2011-2015 the land clearing and house build was led by Kurt but often required an extended family effort. Establishing a life on this land has required persistence, ingenuity, and years of trial. It is a physically demanding lifestyle filled with endless logging, clearing, water management, solar maintenance, and property upkeep. Staying in balance means staying close to home and finding joy in the surrounding natural beauty.

The land itself, classified as low-quality grade 5 soil and historically valued for quarried road base materials, has gradually revealed its potential. Drawn to the diversity of its microclimates, the Brubakers have developed methods to cultivate productive gardens though year-round onsite soil generation while integrating native plant systems into the landscape.

Laura spends much of her time exploring this terrain with their dogs, Nyxie (Greater Swiss Mountain dog mix) and Finster (Dachshund). They travel through a landscape shared with bear and cougar, skunk and rattlesnake giving pause to respect the territories of each. Living here has become an ongoing process of adaptation, an effort to align daily life with the rhythms of season, climate, and place.

Recent efforts to extend the local landscape back into public spaces include an experimental planting in March of 2026 of native plants at the Upper Rogue community Center in Shady Cove. Weaving flowering "weeds" and perennials into common areas has been a curiosity for locals. The goal is to find plants that meet a number of difficult requirements from deer browsing to drought tolerance while being attractive and beneficial to pollinators in a fire-hardened landscape.

The imagery is a solace to the daily labors and a constant draw that lures the artist outdoors. Her photographic work is grounded in close observation of the intense beauty of the Upper Rogue’s ecology and an awareness of the pressures impacting forest health, water systems, and soil resilience. Through art, forest restoration, and seed stewardship, she seeks to foster a deeper understanding of the region and identify strategies of living that are mutually beneficial for the surrounding systems of ecology.