Maria Sibylla Merian cookies

These are cookies! Or, as the British artist, Dr Ella Hawkins, calls them: biscuits.

Her caption:
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was a naturalist and nature artist. She studied insects, flowers, and animals in various parts of the world, publishing her findings in a series of illustrated volumes.
Here are some of Merian’s celebrated illustrations in biscuit (cookie) form. 
The original paintings form part of the Royal Collection, and are watercolour on vellum.

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I celebrated Maria Sibylla Merian in an earlier post in 2017.

Temporary Vivarium Closure

An email was received with the following statement:

“Understandably considering recent news we have had several people inform us they are curtailing their activities due to the Omicron wave. As volunteers you are all very aware how special and unique a visit to the vivarium is, but at this time we feel we cannot provide enough staff to offer the quality visitor experience we all want.”

“There will be no shifts until at least January 5th.”

OH NO! BOO HOO! SOB!

A Monarch shares a leaf with a Malachite.

Zebra Mosaic close up

Here’s a Zebra Mosaic in the AMNH Butterfly Conservatory although usually it is found in Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America.

Butterflies in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Light Festival from 2019. The Butterfly Effect by Masamichi Shimada.

Read more about this here.

Vivarium Visit 2x this week.

Owl from Central and South America.

Blue Belly Button peeking. Central and South America.

Malachite. Central and South America and Florida.

Silver Speckled Leafwing from Central and South America..

Perhaps a Postman Longwing.

Ginkgo leaves as butterflies.

Gu Houxin creates butterflies by painting Ginkgo leaves. He achieves the delicacy.

Made from Ginkgo trees in Suzhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province. Gu has so far made over 700 such butterflies by painting coloured patterns on Ginkgo leaves.

These images are culled from the website of Cor Kwant. She lives in The Netherlands and studies the Gingko tree.

She poses this sublime question:

Does it represent One living creature
which has divided itself?
Or are these Two, which have decided,
that they should be as One?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are more Gingko butterflies by an unknown artist:

Don’t mow

Which house would you rather live in? The one with the neatly mowed lawn, or the one that invites pollinators?

Here’s an article in the NY Times about Mr. Jacobs, an ecologist who believes that humans can fight climate change and help repair the world right where they live. 

Click here for article.