Here’s a detail of my WIP. Can you spot the imposter? Before I finish this painting, I decided to take it one step further down the rabbit hole & add another layer to the narrative. As I paint this American hornet moth (Sesia tibialis) I wonder why it mimics wasps. Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both. Has the moth evolved a precise resemblance to the yellow jacket wasp to avoid predators exclusively? Or fool the predatory wasps into accepting them as kin? Or both? How can I draw parallels to the human condition? What will be will always be? The closer I look the more questions reappear in the complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. So many things to still to learn from nature. Anyways, yellowjackets are fascinating but viscerally they raise the hairs on the back of my neck. I hope this painting makes some of you feel overwhelmed. It's powerful to be able to elicit a wide range of emotions! 🐝🐝🐝🐝 Detail of ‘Point of no return’, acrylic on maple panel for Spectrum opening next week @joshualinergallery #PointofNoReturn #finaltouch #yellowjackets #Batesianmimicry #americanhornetwasp #tiffanybozic #t.bozic (at Joshua Liner Gallery)
