19 August 2010

It’s been a busy five months. New species for my collection from night excursions around the region with Dave Rentz and around my lights at home. Two public addresses on Mothology: Friends of the Botanical Gardens and Cairns Seniors. And a very full artistic stint.

A couple of top moths first.

As soon as I saw Eustixis aglaodora on the night sheet on Black Mountain Road I said that’s the moth of the night. It’s a much bigger moth than the other species of Eustixis that I have. The second moth is Pachythrix hampsoni also from Black Mountain Road. There have been two excursions to Baldy Mountain at the back of Atherton and on each occasion the highlight was a Hepialidae. The one featured here is suspected to be a species of the genus Oxycanus. Many thanks of course to Dave Rentz for showing me some new sights around the region, apart from good moth-ing haunts. Here is the view we had of the sun going down from Mt. Carbine and a couple of collateral ‘catches’ before it got dark.

Artistically I exhibited at: Artists of the North in Cairns (non-competitive), Cardwell (First Prize New Media), Mareeba (First Prize Digital Art), and the Cairns Show (First Prize Digital Art). I was also one of ten artists selected for Esplanart 2010 for the Cairns Festival: 100 Rich and Famous Tropical Queenslanders. For this, my first stint into public art as an individual, I made 100 rich - in colour and pattern - and famous - found in World Heritage Area - moths from my collection. They are digitally printed on vinyl, laminated and mounted on acrylic which I jigsawed to shape. They are attached to six light poles next to the iconic lagoon on the Cairns Esplanade. The moths are of course much bigger than life size. The moths used in this public art have been marked on the Identification pages temporarily for anyone who sees them and wants to identify them. The moths will be in place for the length of the Festival, til 5 September. Thousands of people will be exposed to the beauty of a moth-er’s obsession!

Images of my first-prize winning entries.

Cardwell - The Gift - Moths from the World Heritage listed Wet Tropics of Queensland

Mareeba - Moth Enigma

Cairns Show - Hypsidian Bisection

Esplanart 2010

Til next update

                                                                                                            Cheers Buck