I am a Wasp
The original inspiration - a Dolichovespula arenaria - common aerial yellowjacket nest
The Vespidae Project
Exploring the places where I can’t go
2020-current
Seeing the form emerge as the leaves died away was a surprise. A large papery form entangled and speared was suddenly right in view. How had I missed such a large form the size of my head all those days and weeks walking by? A home for so many! I couldn’t reach it. I watched as the winds came and the form endured. No one home now. Caught in mid air, by thorns and complexity that kept my interest day after day. I wondered what it would be like to be a wasp easily coming and going through such a snarl? What was it like inside? The form moved with the thicket in the wind, integrated, not separate. The now bare branches and menacing thorns running through it provided scaffolding and support. I watched the nest degrade over months, finally the bottom dropped away. And then, one day it was gone.
The form reminded me how intertwined and reliant we are to everything around us. Humans are not separate from wasps. We need to be reminded of that. We need to learn to see how beautiful and important this entanglement is ~ with every….every living thing that is here now. There is not a minute to loose.
An observer having always had an activist mentality; I am internally motivated by rapid climate change and the degradation of the planet. My two concurrent projects, The Kelp Project, and The Vespula Project - I am a Wasp, seemingly are not related but together represent a pursuit of bearing witness and practicing empathy towards the non-human world. Transforming a subject deemed to be a “pest” or a “service” to society, I offer alternative stories to the viewer.
As a biologist, I observed my subject and collected data that went to a courtroom to affect changes in law. As an artist, I transform my field sketches, writings, and photographs into works hoping to affect change in the viewer’s psyche. Layering transparent and opaque inks, altering viscosity, using collagrapy and monotype; I am able to react to the color, depth, and form that appear with each successive print. A series format allows me to further explore a topic with each rendition. Repetition pushes an idea well past the intended outcome. Striving for each piece to be part of a larger body of cohesive work, yet also wanting each piece to be able to stand on its own formally. My printmaking practice informs my painting practice.
“Our psyche suffers when deprived of biodiversity, and our physical lives become threatened when ecosystem services like pollination, natural pest control, seed dispersal, and organic decomposition are compromised. There is no alternative but to preserve and protect all remaining extant species, wasps included. ”