Bugs 'n' Slugs

I've been in an especially "spring-y" mood lately. Some of our ice started melting into the streets yesterday, because the temperatures finally crept above that dreaded freezing point.

The greenhouse is also back in order after serving as a temporary storage facility all winter. I can not begin to explain my excitement about planting season. I've already started a few trays of seeds, and this morning  I noticed some little green specks reaching through the soil. I involuntarily clapped my hands at the sight. You know what they say, "If you're happy and you know it..."

This past month I've been on somewhat of an art hiatus due to a terrible case of "the blahs". But all this new springtime excitement finally got my creative juices flowing again. I'm working on a few new characters of the bug 'n' slug variety. I made a tiny set of paintings yesterday as a little bit of a test run. I want my creepy crawlies to have mismatched antenna and eyes to make them more cute than creepy. I also want to dream up a little abstract world for them to live in. I made my tester paintings using acrylics on 4"x4" canvases (I adore tiny canvases). They feature three characters; a beetle, a snail, and an inchworm. Their little abstract habitat is composed of trees with fancy filigreed roots and a sky filled with swirly white clouds. What do you think? Are they keepers?

Beautiful Butterflies

It's that time of year again, late summer, which means butterfly season, cricket season, grasshopper season - essentially anything-with-six-legs-and-a-hopping-or-flying-habit season. I'm intensely curious about insects, unfortunately my curiosity level is matched by my fear level. Let's just say, I don't go around trying to find bugs, but if there's one in the room I'm in, I probably know where it is, what it is, and its typical habits. I like to continually assess my surrounding for possible threats, and I keep a mental data base of insects I might encounter and what to watch out for when they're around. 

Expanding upon that topic: most of my close friends and family members know that I have a particularly large and irrational issue with flying invertebrates, especially the moth and butterfly variety. In my opinion they are great to look at when they're behind glass, as in outside your window, but otherwise they are, to put it bluntly, gross. Now you're probably thinking, "But Kristi, how could you not be amazed and overjoyed by these majestic and wonderful creatures?!" To that I say - Sure, it's all fun and games until you look closely at what those wonderful and majestic wings are attached to. Every butterfly has a disgusting, squirmy, hairy segmented body, and I have a hard time looking past that flaw. To prove my point even further, I've created a short comic strip so that you can see the world through my eyes.

I'm glad they're around to pollinate my flowers and add ambiance to a summer evening, but please, I beg of all butterflies - DO NOT LAND ON ME!