OniOniOniArt

The dobson fly is a large member of the order Neuroptera and looks pretty fierce, though it is quite harmless. The females do not have the elongated jaws. I have gotten really behind here... [February 24, 2020]

Today I helped my sister clean some old junk out of her closets and throw it out or take it to Goodwill. This got me wondering about what sort of fastidious insects might be a good representation of cleaning house for my daily bug project. I chose the ant lion larva because of their wonderful way of unceremoniously flinging the garbage and detritus (usually insect carcasses) out of their funnel-shaped sand traps. It was with this same enthusiasm I tossed all the unused things and garbage into trash bags - I don't know why but it is highly satisfying for me to get rid of stuff, including other people's. [February 15, 2020]

In my defense, I had too much coffee this morning and my hand was shaky - check out those jagged lines! I was also in a hurry to complete something. Mantispids, AKA mantis flies, are darling little Neuropterans which resemble and behave similarly to mantids. They have a parasitic phase, though, in which they raid spider eggs and wasp nests, so I think that elevates them a bit above mantids in the bad ass department. [January 14, 2020] Side Bar: My husband is dragging me to see Star Wars in the theatre today for a second time. If that isn't love...pray tell what is?

The spoonwing is a Neuropteran closely related to antlions. I had some difficulties completing this today - i.e. I'd rather have not, but I'm not sure why. [January 9, 2020]

"Teach us how to do something" "I Can't Hide...My Larva for You!" This is how to make a pretty simple pop-up greeting card. Mine features a green lacewing larva and super cheesy pun, but your design can be whatever you want. *Materials* card stock glue stick scissors pencil images pens/markers/colored pencils (optional) colored paper/origami paper (optional) Cheesy pun or sentiment (optional) 1. First, gather your cardstock. You will have an outer and inner card. My outer card is the white one. It is 3" x 3", but yours can be any size. The kraft colored cardstock is the inner card. It is slightly smaller than the outer card. For comparison 2. Next, decorate the front of the outer card any way you like and set it aside. Mine is pretty simple - I glued on some origami and kraft card stock and  wrote on it with a sharpie and gelly roll pen. Next, I'm going to start working wi...

"Take something that you made with you wherever you go today. Take pictures of it in different places or with different people throughout the day" Arriving at Work This is actually something I've done before - taking an object, photographing it in different places, and putting it together into a little book for someone. Usually, there is a loose narrative behind it. No deeper meaning here though. I brought the paper mantispid (my very first Creative Sprint project) with me to work on Friday. It is unfortunate that my camera battery died early, as I was in the field and could have got pics around Lake Hart. The Breakroom My Cube The Zen Corner in my cube In the work truck And the battery died! [June 24, 2016] So I took a few pics at Lake Mills since I missed out on Lake Hart: [June 25, 2016]

"It's National Poetry Month! Write a poem or make something inspired by a poem you like" I decided to create tanka, a classical Japanese poetry style similar to haiku in that you have a set number of syllables per line. Tanka are 5-7-5-7-7 and often depend on puns and double entendres for meaning (I have no such skill). They were frequently introduced with a bit of prose describing the feeling, thoughts, mood, scenery, or any other bit of information about why or when it was composed, that gave further depth and context to the short poems. When a friend asked me to name a favorite insect I replied: The tiger beetle Mantispids are another Mantids, can't deny My favorite's hard to pin Can't even choose an Order! On discovering my beloved mantids belonged with vile roaches on the cladogram: Preying mantids may evolutionarily  be predatory elongated cockroaches, I pray not show revulsion More on classical Japan here . ...

"What do you collect? Work with a collection of your own or borrow one." Pure Admiration It's funny, I only recently acknowledged to myself that yes, I do collect something: literature and art books from Heian-era Japan (794-1185), and here is a prompt for that. I just acquired the Choju Giga art book seen in the background (hooray!) which inspired me to recycle two projects from October 2015's CreativeSprint and use them in a different context.  The mantispid was made on CS 2015  Day 1 and the painting is a miniature print-out of a mock Choju Giga drawing I did on CS 2015  Day 8 . The easel and paintbrush are made of kraft cardstock. [April 6, 2016]