Material: sustainable maple wood, olive green ribbon and brass hardware
Insect: Periodical Cicada (Brood XIX)
This sustainably sourced wooden ornament is great for the insect lover in your life! The ornament is a print of an original watercolor painting titled "Albus the Periodical Cicada". This maple wood ornament comes with an olive green ribbon so you can hang it just about anywhere!
The back of the ornament is natural wood and is hand signed by the artist.
The Story Behind the Painting: I have always wanted to do a cozy painting with candles, books and fairy lights and when I met this periodical cicada (who I named Albus) on my front steps earlier this year, I knew he would be perfect for that setting.
Albus seemingly emerged a year too soon, as the brood XIX cicadas (which includes 4 different species of the 13-year cicada) are set to emerge in 2024 in Tennessee and several other states. There is something so magical to me about the behavior of these peculiar insects. Although Albus made his appearance a year too soon (I like to believe he was scoping things out for his family), scientists hypothesize that periodical cicadas have a type of internal molecular clock. This clock is believed to note the passage of years through environmental cues. To me, it doesn’t get more magical than that.
But why do they emerge every 13 or 17 years you ask?
Due to cicadas being a VERY popular treat for so many small animals (birds, snakes, turtles, lizards, moles, mice, rabbits, etc.) emerging all at once in large numbers ensures that they are able to mate and reproduce even with so many predators.
As I was reading Nancy Lawson’s book, “Wildscape” earlier this year, she had a chapter dedicated to the soundscape within nature. Although she was referencing brood X in her book because she lives in the Northeast, I thought that part of the book would be a perfect passage to include in my painting. With her permission, I chose her book to be the one Albus was sitting on. Almost like he is doing his own research on his 17-year cicada friends. As another nod to my favorite author, the tiny bottle sitting in the right hand corner of the painting is filled with American pokeweed “ink”. If you read her first book, “The Humane Gardener”, you will know why I chose to include pokeweed in this painting.
