Geo Rutherford: Artist, Author, and Spooky Lakes Creator

Geo Rutherford is a popular TikTok creator and author of the new book Spooky Lakes: 25 Strange and Mysterious Lakes That Dot Our Planet. Geo started her career as a high school art teacher in the Midwest, creating engaging and thoughtful art curricula for her students. She eventually decided to get her MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Upon moving, she fell in love with the Great Lakes and their unique role in our ecosystem. (She even based her thesis art show on them.) When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she started posting videos on TikTok, and one of her first-ever videos about her Great Lakes–inspired art went viral. She then leveraged her background in arts education with her newfound limnology hobby and posted more about lakes, telling informative, entertaining stories about the oddest and coolest lakes worldwide. This fall, she published her book, which Kirkus Reviews calls “a chilling but thrilling primer for budding limnologists,” and continued her annual TikTok series, Spooky Lake Month, in October.

Content warning: Brief discussion of suicide

Note: The audio introduction incorrectly states that Geo received a Master's in Arts Education. She received an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.