Review

"Flower Mantis Pair" (detail), Insects and Paper.

Katie Van Blaricum

9 a.m.-9 p.m.

Lawrence Public Library
707 Vermont St.
Lawrence, KS
785.843.3833

Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. noon-6 p.m. Sunday.
Runs through: Aug. 31.

Artist's site: http://www.insectartonline.com
Gallery site: http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us

Can't ... resist ... bad ... pun ...

Today's featured artist will bug you, in a good way.

(Yes, I know that not all insects are bugs. It's just a figure of speech.)

Granted, Katie Van Blaricum's brand of six-legged art might give entomophobes the willies. For everyone else, however, her show at the Lawrence Public Library ofers a delicate, meditative look at creatures which are themselves works of art. (See the flower mantis above, a detail view of one of Van Blaricum's pieces, for both example and proof.)

Van Blaricum, who also creates jewelry from insects, offers her entire current selection of framed works in the library show. These are no sterile biological samples. They are carefully mounted and arranged against backgrounds which complement and highlight the animals' colors and structures.

She explains the process:

Insect Art is made of real insects from around the world. They come to me dried out and all folded up. I re-hydrate them to make them flexible again, and then spread them out on a styrofoam board with sewing pins and little strips of paper. I do not put any pins through the bodies of my insects; I like them natural-looking and lifelike. This makes the insects a bit more difficult to handle, but the end result is worth it. Lastly, I choose an art background for the shadowbox frame and glue the insects onto that. The whole process takes several days, and each end result is unique.

Visually, yes, but there's a common conceptual thread: The insects are presented not only for their own sake, but as elements of the larger piece as well. When Van Blaricum speaks of "Insect Art" ... the emphasis is on both words.

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