I could not believe my eyes yesterday when I spotted a tiny orange hairy caterpillar on the pavement! I felt really lucky to have seen it considering it was so small. There must be something in what people say, if you’re interested in a topic you somehow attract more of it; in this case caterpillars as that’s the second one (different species) I’ve spotted on a walk. As you’ve probably gathered I’m pretty into caterpillars at the moment not only as potential subjects for my sculptures and drawings but also for a really cool workshop idea for children.
I am photographing all these caterpillars and uploading them to a dedicated folder on the computer so I can reference whenever I need to. Not sure, yet what species they all are but as these were spotted in the UK maybe I’ll have more luck getting them identified. Still no news from the Lapworth twitter on my Brazilian caterpillar but my aunt may know someone who knows someone.
So much has happened in just one week! The highlight had to be Friday, when Jon Clatworthy the Director of the Lapworth took me on a tour of the store rooms. What a treasure trove of thousands of specimens hidden away safely tucked into, drawers, cabinets, boxes….I could and did get lost in this labyrinth.
As I mentioned previously, I’ve been looking at corals and they had some beautiful specimens which I was allowed to handle. I took plenty of photographs and spent the afternoon sketching them; I always feel drawing allows you to study things more acutely than observation alone.
I’m going back next time I’ll be taken to the bio store, obviously my idea of heaven! There I’ll be able to see lots of pickled specimens in jars, I think I’ll focus on snakes. After that, who knows maybe primates as I’m still keen to include a squirrel monkey and something Jon said has got me thinking about the connection between wood lice and trace fossils.
Buzzing after my trip to the Lapworth yesterday, I can see so many connections and feeling refueled and totally inspired! Very taken by the case of trilobites think they look like shoe prints although that does depend on the shoe. There were fossils too that looked like delicate, detailed drawings these may influence my zines. In my head, a correlation is emerging between forensics, imprints and carbon (I’ll quiz the scientists about that after the weekend).
Definitely going to be investigating coral more closely there is a type which strangely resembles the human brain and another that looks like veins. I wander if the museum has wax models of these that they may use for teaching, so I can get a sense of them in 3D.
It was great too, to see installations by artists from the ‘Black Arts Florum’, what they responded to in the collections and the space. My personal favorite was ‘Sangoma Colours’ by textile artist Pauline Bailey. I noticed her piece immediately upon entering the museum and think she’s perfectly emulated the vivid, rainbow coloured mineral Bornite.
