Introduction
“Friends of ABC: Jewellery of Nature”, Kenneth found the title, I really like this because these words summaries the friendship between the three of us, Helena, Kenneth and me. The theme of our project are visual poetry in the form of art- watercolor paintings and sketches (pencil, charcoal and pen) and photography.
Insects and spiders are very similar to humans in the sense that they have a brain, they have a heart, they have all the human organs, and every creature even a slug or a silverfish (not a fish) has an ear, and they can learn and adapt based on lived experience. No two creatures are exactly the same, each has something extra-extraordinary about them, some things even enthralling or mesmerizing; the world within our world which is the miniature world is truly beguiling and fascinating, and I am so honored, amongst my friends Helena and Sylvie to have taken part in what is a brilliant project that I hope you all love viewing as much as we all love putting this together!
Helena’s artworks were all created by her enchanting hand work and magnificent artist eye that creates such luxuriously beautiful art pieces; Sylvie’s works are no less magnificent and beautiful, and my works, well, I will leave that to all who view them to decide, but to much as is what shall be said by thyself, I am very proud of my photos, and I am so happy I get to share them with you all with my friends Helena and Sylvie who’s artworks are utterly brilliant and perfect in my eyes in every way.
Artist Daniel Flores created a podcast with Helena and published it on YouTube. Here is the link if you want to watch: https://youtu.be/9rrqfdDYtF8?t=1
KENNETH
Single images below
1. Photo of a huntsman spider: Resting on a piece of bark that I peeled back just a little at Rofe Park, which is a place of nature magic, and I am very pleased with this photo that I took.
2. Photo of a butterfly that was also taken at Rofe Park! I was walking down the footpath to the nature reserve that adjoins Rofe Park when I saw this butterfly. I immediately noticed these decadently beautifully rich hues of orange, and then these piercing black eyes on its wings, and I had to take its photo, and thankfully, this butterfly was an amazingly patient and perfect supermodel!
3. Here is a photo of a most strange thing that I found one day at Rofe Park which are some kind of multiple eggs that are of a species that I have no idea about!
If anyone from Australia or any other country that has this species in their country knows what this is, please feel free to tell me?
I took this close up and couldn’t be more stoked that I got a good photo of something that made my day so incredibly special, that I may chance upon such a thing on a day when I thought I would just find the usual, and then the occasional amazing thing, but never something so different!
4. Here is a photo taken at Rofe Park of a rubbish spider, it is called a rubbish spider because it makes something in its web that looks like rubbish to blend in as something that looks like rubbish itself, hence the name.
I used a small aperture to take this photo, different to conventional approaches which is with a wide aperture, which awesomely enough created bokeh around the spider!
With that amazingly green background and the tree at the left of the frame, I just really love how things came together for this photo. I walked 900 metres into the nature reserve to find a tree that had 25 of them around the tree, and this is the one that was most photogenic to me with the way that the whole scene came together with the spider, in complementing it and contrasting it and adding to the scene masterfully.
5. And here is a photo of probably the most unique thing that I have ever seen at Rofe Park! As I approached a most healthy tree, a tree I hadn't inspected in a very long time, tall grass standing guard at every inch around the tree and it’s "luscious emerald green" fortress surrounds, I noticed something glisteningly out of the ordinary (peculiar to what was expected aka remarkably much of difference), this was the most fantastic find of mine to date at Rofe Park, and something I never thought my eyes would bare witness!
I began to approach the tree with a slow but steadfast pace, just being in awe with every micro inch I crept, because of what I was beholding, and at first, as I neared, at first glance, I thought it must be a cocoon, but upon closer inspection, I realized this cocoon had legs near the top of its head and above its head, "what a marvel of an artwork on the canvas of nature" I exclaimed in ecstatic overjoy and elation and euphoria! To my bemusement, I seemed way overexcited than I'd ever imagined I'd be in such moments of befuddlement, but I readily and most swiftly took out my camera and started taking many frames with old faithful thy camera!
6. Here is a photo I took of a leech taken at Rofe Park.
This leech was about to climb onto my shoe and suck my blood, but before it could, I stepped away and it just found itself suspended in metaphorically speaking, mid air, and it held itself in this position for a good 2 minutes, and I just really loved how the position it was in made it look like an upside down letter T, with the branch it was standing on being the top of the upside down letter T!
This is a typical scene of a leech at Rofe Park, and there are hundreds and hundreds of them; even thousands of them on a rainy day! I got about eleven of them all over me on one occasion when photographing other creatures, so this is a fun thing, because this is a memorable encounter with a leech, but this is just one among thousands living in the super huge nature reserve.
7. Another photo taken at Rofe Park of an assassin bug, they are amazing creatures which will pierce their prey with their rostrums (long thing in front of its face which it uses to jab prey and suck them dry with). I noticed that she was just happily resting on this leaf, and I thought that she just looked/looks so pretty and so extravagantly marvellous in design, and so, inevitably so, I took her photo!
8. And here is my lucky last photo of the same assassin bug, I thought this was the most aesthetically pleasing photo in terms of how the background, the pink petal, the vine behind the assassin bug and the way the scene just all came together, just so wonderfully juxtaposed! I think they just marvellously and exquisitely complement the assassin bug.
9. Here is a full picture shot of a centipede which is a stone centipede photographed in the pot of my cactus plant, which was happily munching away at the hapless victim; a diseased black house spider.
10. Here is the last photo of that same centipede.
I just loved how it was tearing into its prey, and of the sparkling light around it, and wanted to highlight that with a super close up. Shortly after, it retreated back into its hole, and I love it for being most cooperative for having its portrait taken!
______________________________________________________________________
HELENA LAYZU
Every living thing is beautiful itself. An insect is a very small animal that has six legs and most of the insects have wings like flies, butterflies, bee, and ant. Insects are beautiful creation of the Almighty. There is a group project of three friends from Australia, Bangladesh and Canada (in short-ABC friends). We three people tried to bring up the beauty of some insects on this planet.
I’m a fine artist. That’s the reason I created 10 miniature Artworks in different media: Graphite Pencil, Charcoal, Ball point, Gel Pen, Watercolor of insects. Try to show the artistic beauty the insects to the world.
Importance of the insects in Ecology:
Insects play significant roles in the ecology of the world due to their vast diversity of form, function and lifestyle; their considerable biomass; and their interaction with plant life, other organisms and the environment. Since they are the major contributor to biodiversity in the majority of habitats, except in the sea, they accordingly play a variety of extremely important ecological roles in the many functions of an ecosystem. Taking the case of nutrient recycling, insects contribute to this vital function by degrading or consuming leaf litter, wood, carrion and dung and by dispersal of fungi.
-Wikipedia
_____________________________________________________________________
SYLVIE
The amount of spiders, insects and snails in the world are endless. There are quadrillion spiders. A quadrillion is a billion multiplied by a million. So there are millions of billions of spiders on earth. That's almost 3 million spiders for every human. But, just 50,000 know species.
Insects number over 10 quintillions on earth according to the Entomological Society of America (ESA). There are approximately 1,4 billion insects per person. That is 900,000 different kinds of living insects. One quintillion is one million quadrillion.
And, there are about 60,000 species divided into land snails, sea snails, and freshwater snails.
I congratulate and thank Helena for her remarkable and so wonderful artworks, this superb layout and her great patience for all the updates. And Kenneth for writing the introduction and his incredible photos. Thanks to Kenneth my friend from Australia and Helena my friend from Bangladesh. I love You my dear friends.
We hope you enjoy our “Friends of ABC: Jewellery of Nature” project as much as we do.
The pictures of this cute snail were taken on September 8, 2022 in Montreal, at 7:12 am.
These photos with the ant walking the flower were taken at the Montreal Botanical Garden on June 22, 2019, at 2:12 pm.
The photo of the Buckeye butterfly was taken on September 8 (at 8:29 am), and the caterpillar on September 25 (at 10:57 am). Both in 2022 in Frederic-Back park.
The photo of this beautiful bee on a sunflower was taken on July 20, 2022 (at 6:46 a.m.) at Frederic-Back Park.
The photos of these two athletic grasshoppers were taken (top) on September 3, 2022 (at 7:40 a.m.) and on September 25, 2022 (at 11:34 a.m.) at Frederic-Back Park.
The photo of this beautiful dragonfly was taken on September 11, 2015 on St. Helena Island in Montreal, at 1:41 pm.
I took this photo on September 9, 2022 at 6:12 p.m. at Frederic-Back Park.
I finish with another picture of a bee that I also photographed at the Frederic-Back Park on October 4, 2022 at 1:12 PM.
