Ants

Bear with me, something about my blog layout has changed, I can't figure it out and I don't like change. It's freaking me out!

So, earlier tonight I was daydreaming as I am wont to do during all hours of consciousness and my mind went to ants.

I can remember being on a school bus when I was in first grade on a rainy day. In the great tradition of kid-dom, I was learning to make a realistic baby's footprint with the side of my fist on the steamy window. As I was making the toe prints with my fingers I watched the rain beat on the window. I thought "I wonder what it is like to an ant when a rain drop falls?" I could just picture them in their differently scaled world, rain drops thundering down around them like giant water bombs. How loud that must sound and feel to them.

Around that same time, I was at The Farm with my sister Brandi. We were running around barefooted, all scratched up and covered in mud. Much to our dismay, Dad had drained a tiny little fishing pond  that we dearly loved. The good news was it left an absolutely fascinating landscape in its wake, rife with new specimens to be captured and studied. It was as if a chunk of brown moonscape had been placed in the ground. There were hunks of things that looked just like rock but broke easily. There were gooey slick mud spots down low that could suck a boot right off your foot, if you wore them. There were areas of what we called "quick mud" that would nearly suck you up entirely! Lots of dramatic fun for a kid to make into hours of excitement. Yep, we really can get very excited over a mud hole (even still).

As we were exploring what lives in my memory as "Dirt Land" We found a breathtaking jewel of a creature walking around sticking out from its environment like a sore thumb. It was like a tiny animated sculpture, such lush red velvet flocking, such dramatic black markings, what beautiful shiny legs! We placed it in a rusty Folger's coffee can to show off to Dad, and to "keep!", we always wanted to keep everything.

I only had the Audubon reptiles & amphibians handbook (my bible), I didn't have an insect book. And way back then we didn't have the internet, so I never learned very much about this creature until now.
This red beauty's Latin name is Multillidae and it is actually a wingless female wasp. She has such a vicious sting she is also known as "Cow Killer", we're lucky we didn't find out ourselves. Allegedly they are found only in the southwest and Mexico, dry dessert areas. But I swear we have them here in the southeast too, although I don't see them often.
I am inspired to make a sculpture of this gorgeous Red Devilress. Can't you just see her?
Okay, daydreaming time is over Dusti. I will have to save the ant idea for later, but that was a nice departure from the norm for now.

Tomorrow it's back to Concord to work on pastiglia and woodwork. And P.S. I love pastiglia!!! I should have taken more pictures but I will have some to post soon. Plaster has a magic moment when it is drying where it is just a joy to carve. It's like liquid stone, very cool stuff. I love exploring the possibilities!