Watercolor and Ink
16 x 20 inches
2021-2024
This was one of the first two decalcomania paintings I ever made, during the dark winter days the first year of Covid.
See Decalcomania
Initially, as I played with the composition, I envisioned this piece resembling the large “blobs” of combined lichen and moss that hang from tree branches in Pacific Northwest forests. But, after revealing what the decalcomania process produced, it kind of resembled an abstract bursting human heart.
Ichneumon are a type of parasitic wasp found in many parts of the world. This particular species (Megarhyssa macrurus) lives in Oregon, and it uses a form of echolocation to locate its prey. Females will tap their antennae against the surface of bark, feeling for a vibrational signal that the larvae of another wasp, called a horntail, is living beneath the bark and feeding on the wood. Then, it injects its long sharp ovipositor through the bark and wood (shown in the painting) into the body of the larvae and injects one of its eggs. The baby ichneumon dwells inside the living horntail larvae, feeding on its fatty tissues. Finally, it will pupate, and a fully grown ichneumon wasp explodes out of the horntail larvae, killing it.