Research in the Field

pen and ink sketch - from my journal 12/2011

  In the name of nurturing my inspiration I took a field trip to the local Audubon Sanctuary today. I was hunting milk weed pods to photograph that I knew I could find in these fields in Central Massachusetts. My children have been to this sanctuary often as home schooled kids back in the day and as day campers when they were very young. I believe the sanctuary staff keep fields of milk weed in order to attract monarchs and other butterflies that feed on the plant. I was a little disappointed to discover that the fields had been mowed earlier in the year - perhaps so that the plant does not become invasive. I did find a few pods left behind. 

There were lots of other goodies to find in these fields besides milk weed! 

Meanwhile back in the studio...

...seed chambers and pods in various stages of becoming are emerging as well! 

I am reading about a little-known naturalist woman in the book Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis by Kim Todd. Ms. Merian was a young German woman living in Amsterdam who insisted on making detailed drawings of the stages of metamorphosis in the insects' natural habitat. She discovered some of her specimens that were shipped over from America ("The New World") on ships that landed in the ports of Amsterdam. This was unique in an era (17th Century Europe) of male scientist studying insects mainly by observing dead specimens pinned to cotton in dusty cabinets. She was an obsessive observer of nature from a very young age, a trait I can relate to and admire in a person.