Author Archives: swarm
Wonders beneath your feet
This is an absolutely wonderful article about a new discovery: Tarantulas not only posses spinnerets, but have silk glands on their feet. Wired News has a picture-laden article about the whole silky saga. This enables the heavy arachnids to climb … Continue reading
Covered in BEES pt. 2
Last Friday I visited my friend Darrel at his place in El Sobrante. His land was alive with inventive sustainable architecture, beautiful bamboo, and insects of course! In addition to getting a tour of all the species of bamboo on … Continue reading
Covered in BEES
In 1981 farmer and beekeeper Ron Fischer answered an ad in a national beekeeping journal seeking a man or woman willing to be photographed with bees by a “world-famous photographer.” That photographer turned out to be Richard Avedon. Here’s a … Continue reading
Posted in art, photography
Tagged bee, Lara Wilson, photography, Richard Avedon, Ron Fischer
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Insect Ball
Biomorphic glass artist Alexis Berger sent me this lovely vintage illustration to cheer me up during my weekend of flu. I love the attendees, especially the obscure eyed lantern bug in the foreground!
The True Bug Blues
If there’s one vernacular name that drives me crazy, it’s “Bug”. An ancient word still in use today that can refer to an insect, spider, woodlouse, centipede, lobster, bacterium, computer error, or a pug/Boston terrier mix. Or just possibly, it … Continue reading
Insects of Hair
“As an artist with a deep interest in sustainable and self-supporting systems, human hair seems the most immediate and true material. I find fascinating the historical implications and various uses of human hair. I am also intrigued with the attraction/repulsion … Continue reading
Posted in art
Tagged Adrienne Antonson, beetle, butterfly, fly, hair, moth, sustainability
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Monochrome Mashups: Hillier, Ernst and Mad Meg
Though an accomplished painter and illustrator of original works, Dan Hillier has become well-known for his inventive collages sourced from Dover Pictorial Archives, with a dose of Photoshoppery. His Lovecraftian combinations of prim ladies and writhing tentacles has even … Continue reading
Posted in art
Tagged Amblypygi, art, beetle, cockchafer, collage, cricket, Dan Hillier, engraving, insect, locust, Mad Meg, Max Ernst, Rembrandt, stellanova, wasp, Weevil
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Viktor Pelevin’s The Life of Insects (Жизнь насекомых)
“Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.” -Zhuangzi Years ago I was thankfully urged to read the novel The … Continue reading
Posted in art, literature
Tagged ant, cicada, literature, Marianna markaki, Mikhail Bulgakov, mosquito, moth, Russia, scarab, Viktor pelevin, Yulia Medveditskova
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Beetle on the Brain
My friend Clear alerted me to this lovely skull made entirely of beetle images, by none other than Noah “Skulladay” Scalin, who says of it: “I made this piece as a proposal for a client, but as it was nearing … Continue reading
Maratus voltans, spider supreme!
I’ve been showing this video all week to everybody in range of my computer. It’s simply the most awesomest salticid display, EVAR. And if you know your jumping spiders, you can bet that it’s no mean feat. Watch the entire … Continue reading
