pamelaspeight1
Opportunists Fauna: Paravespula germanica (European Yellowjacket)
Oil stick and graphite powder on Stonehenge paper, 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)
website: pamelaspeight.com/
This series consists of twelve oil stick and graphite powder drawings on primed Stonehenge paper. Each image depicts an animal considered "invasive" in the bio-region in which I live. While working on them I felt that the bright oil stick colors were too "pretty" and made the animals look overly cute. I wanted them to have a more shadowy presence to reflect our ambiguous relationship with them, which the layer of graphite powder added. There are numerous introduced species that flourish uncontrollably, to the detriment of indigenous animals and plants, because natural predators or other constraints are few or non-existent. We make every attempt to reduce their numbers, but they have learned to adapt and thrive in the environments we have constructed. Often referring to them as nuisance species or carriers of disease, they seem to exist in the darker, murkier places that inhabit our subconscious. However, the idea that they are entirely "bad" may be misplaced, especially when we overlook our own role in their transport, either intentionally or unintentionally, on our various migrations across the planet. Like us, they are driven to survive.
Opportunists Fauna: Paravespula germanica (European Yellowjacket)
Oil stick and graphite powder on Stonehenge paper, 16 x 16 inches (40.6 x 40.6 cm)
website: pamelaspeight.com/
This series consists of twelve oil stick and graphite powder drawings on primed Stonehenge paper. Each image depicts an animal considered "invasive" in the bio-region in which I live. While working on them I felt that the bright oil stick colors were too "pretty" and made the animals look overly cute. I wanted them to have a more shadowy presence to reflect our ambiguous relationship with them, which the layer of graphite powder added. There are numerous introduced species that flourish uncontrollably, to the detriment of indigenous animals and plants, because natural predators or other constraints are few or non-existent. We make every attempt to reduce their numbers, but they have learned to adapt and thrive in the environments we have constructed. Often referring to them as nuisance species or carriers of disease, they seem to exist in the darker, murkier places that inhabit our subconscious. However, the idea that they are entirely "bad" may be misplaced, especially when we overlook our own role in their transport, either intentionally or unintentionally, on our various migrations across the planet. Like us, they are driven to survive.