I have always had a fondness for tiny things. As a kindergartner, I would walk the long way home from school through the tiny downtown of Montrose, California, and stop to stare in the toy store window, examining every inch of the large dollhouse that sat there. It was pure magic to me that things could be so intricately detailed on such a small scale. A little later, I had a little plastic ballerina, probably one inch high, for whom I made tiny lace tutus and built a cardboard house and a little paper man to keep her company. As I grew, I created dioramas in shoe boxes for book reports. To this day, miniatures are among treasures I keep in my studio.
So when I was first asked to create microart, it was an idea that appealed to me on a very basic level. Tiny little works of art, not more that two inches square, easy to collect and treasure, so intimate on their scale that they are immediately charming. But then I had to decide what exactly I could do that small, what would feel appropriate and be achievable? It took me a while to figure it out and then fit it into my schedule, but I came to the conclusion that my fondness for insects was the perfect match for my attraction to microart and so the Insect Series was born.
This initial batch of tiny insect artworks are currently available at Sparrow Gallery in Sacramento.