Walk into your garden. What do you see?
Flowers? Grass? The city tree you are not allowed to cut down?
Look a little closer. You may see aphids on your roses or caterpillars on your plants. If you do, you are witnessing a plant-insect interaction — an interaction between an insect and the plant they use for food, shelter or egg-laying. The rapport between insects and their plants is at the core of the artwork created by natural science illustrator, Mindy Lighthipe.
Mindy Lighthipe has always loved art, plants and animals (especially insects). She has been an illustrator all her life and an entomologist since the age of five.
Mindy began her professional art career as a hand weaver and spinner. She grew her own dye stuffs and studied hand weaving and textile design. She was a professional hand weaver from 1985 to 2000 and created handwoven clothing and accessories for her company Fantasy Fiber Designs.
In 1992, Mindy decided to make a career shift because hand weaving was becoming back-breaking work. She was weaving 25 yards of fabric each day and wasn’t sure she wanted to be in this line of work when she turned fifty. Wanting to make a return to fine art, Mindy enrolled into the certificate program for botanical art at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). Mindy graduated from the program in 1993 and began teaching at NYBG in 1994.
During this time, Mindy became more and more in-tune with plants, their habitat, and the impact humans have on the environment. She became increasingly aware of monocultures and started to learn about invasive plant species and native plants. The more she delved into these subjects and fine art, the more she thought about combining art and her interests in plants and insects to educate children and adults about plant-insect relationships.
Last year, Mindy wrote and illustrated Mother Monarch, a children’s book about the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. She wrote Mother Monarch because she found that most people do not understand the symbiotic relationship between caterpillars and their host plants. Mindy says, “You can plant all the nectar plants you want, but if you don’t provide the host plant, biodiversity is lost.”
The audience Mindy wants to connect with the most are homeowners. She wants to drive home the message she first presented at an exhibition titled “McMansion.” Her message then was, “If you build it, they will disappear.” A spin, of course, on the well-known expression, “If you build it, they will come.”
Mindy finds homeowner attitudes toward wildlife and eradication of natural habitats upsetting. She doesn’t understand why homeowners do not understand that the coyotes, deer and bears walking through residential areas do so because they have no where else to go. She also finds people’s reactions to insects a bit worrisome. Especially the reactions of those who scream upon first sight of an insect. One of her objectives is to make insects appealing enough to the public to prevent this from happening.
All signs indicate Mindy is delivering her educational messages successfully. She even made a lasting impression on the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in London, England. Earning an award from the RHS is an incredible honor and is botanical art’s “grand slam.” When Mindy submitted work to the RHS exhibition, she wasn’t expecting an award. The RHS show is known for awarding botanical art that is very detailed and executed flawlessly according to traditional standards. They don’t do insects. Mindy’s collection of 12 themed paintings included insects and were created using what Mindy calls, her usual “rapid painting and flamboyant technique.” To her surprise, she was awarded the silver medal. The jurors stated that “Mindy Lighthipe’s work is reminiscent of 18th-century artists such as Catesby and Maria Sybilla Merian. Her insects are fantastic.” They also felt that if they had a gold medal for mass appeal and public education, they would have given it to her. The educational message she was hoping to send through her work had come through clearly and she received the nod from the Royal Horticultural Society.
When communicating her message, Mindy prefers to do outreach in urban areas and to introduce the disciplines of art and science to an audience who may not have the time or resources to visit museums and art galleries.
Mindy’s recent move to Florida was propelled in part by her work for Symbiosis: Butterflies and Plants, a solo exhibition at the Florida Natural History Museum that closed on March 13, 2011. Living in Gainesville will afford Mindy the opportunity to work at a more relaxed pace and to take more risks with her work, something she had not been able to do living in the New Jersey/New York area. She is hoping to be more creative with her message as she works with the staff at the Florida Natural History Museum and their 25 million insect specimens. She may even return to school to major in entomology. Eventually, Mindy would like her symbiosis artwork to be included in an educational book about plant-insect interactions.
Mindy says her lifelong fascination with art has been with color, texture and pattern. The insect world is filled with fantastic colors, textures and patterns and Mindy feels as if her life as an artist has gone full circle. Where before she was taken with dyes, fabrics and surface designs, she is now taken with insect coloration, exoskeletons and wings!
Ask The Artist with Mindy Lighthipe
Mindy will participate in an Ask The Artist Q&A during National Pollinator Week on June 20-24, 2011. You are invited to ask Mindy questions about her botanical and entomological work and her workshops. Please post your question by June 20.
You May Also Enjoy…
- Document the Flora & Fauna of Costa Rica with Mindy Lighthipe
- Mindy’s Symbiosis gallery
- Blend Art & Ecology to Raise Awareness
Updated November 3, 2014
ArtPlantae Today 
I really like Mindy’s work. I agree entirely with her comments about neighbors trying to eradicate wildlife. I live in rural town, my yard is a wildlife habitat with a forest beginning with my backyard. My neighbor does all he can to kill all the frogs, toad, snakes, etc. that are in his yard. He actually cut the trees down in his back yard so he could see the woods better! How can we help people to understand their interconnectedness to the ecology and environment?
Hi Marc,
Thanks for your comment about my work. I believe we need to reach out to our neighbors, friends, relatives in any way we can to EDUCATE them. I do this through writing and my art work. I also invite people to my garden to see it. When they see the beauty and diversity they are amazed. I take pictures of what I find in my garden and in nature and post it in places like Facebook and Flickr so that all the friends and family I have can see how cool all things are right in my back yard. I share plants with people when I split my native plants and it begins to spread about. SHARE & EDUCATE!
Hi Mindy,
I just ordered “Mother Monarch”! I, too, have been interested in educating the public about the importance of native plants and pollinators. I designed and illustrated a 16-page brochure entitled “Attracting Pollinators to Your Garden Using Native Plants” for the Lolo National Forest here in Montana. The brochure evolved into an eastern U.S. version and also interpretive panels placed at US Forest Service pollinator garden sites around the country! Please see the link and downloadable pdf of the brochure at my site link: http://www.nancyseiler.com/design/usfs-pollination
I also attended the N. American Pollinator Protection Campaign Conference last fall in D.C. and met a lot of like-minded people. There’s lot’s of info about this and great links at: http://pollinator.org/nappc/index.html
You may remember me from when I took your “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” class at DBG back in 2001 or 2002. I now live in Missoula, Montana. Please let me know if you are ever out this way! Enjoy Florida!
Nancy
Interesting about sleeping neighbors, who have little care for the universe they sleep in.
Here we are in the desert, where they have turned it into a giant golf course, changed the climate, and removed all of nature. My neighbor loves concrete. No plants, no trees, nothing natural. Of course no place for a bird, a roadrunner, a rabbit, or anything living. How sad that is.
I think I just figured out why their dogs bark morning, noon and night. Those animals know that they are isolated from the universe that they were born into. How sad for them. I now forgive the dogs for barking. How do I forgive their masters?
Jackie
Mindy,
How did you document the life cycle of the monarch? Did you work from museum exhibits, reference photographs, raise your own butterflies?
Dear Jackie,
Good for you that you now understand your neighbor’s dogs. It is a shame that the dogs as well as the people have to live surrounded by concrete. Perhaps you don’t need to forgive them at all…… Fill your space with wonder, color and life and perhaps they will be “inspired” to do the same. If not….. the dogs will have something better to look at then what they have got now.
Mindy
ArtPlantae Today:
I love to raise caterpillars as well as grow their host plants. For the my Mother Monarch book I started my research by planting common milkweed and sketching its lifecycle. I was lucky enough that the plants attracted Monarchs to my garden where I was able to have the entire lifecycle at my fingertips. I took lots of photos of them in flight and used the photos to create some of the more complicated paintings by using many different poses. I also had some dried specimens that I could work from to get a bit closer and do some blow ups. I was able to use a microscope. Getting involved in the entire process is both rewarding and fun for me. I really get to know my subjects so I can better tell the story!
You created a set of oracle cards that feature 48 of your original paintings. You share cards about the bat, the scarab beetle, and the artichoke on your website http://www.botanicalartpainting.com. How long did it take you to research the subjects for your cards? I bet it was a great research project.
Have you ever tried the “Butterfly Collection” app? See the app at
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/butterfly-collection/id296394541?mt=8#
How about the electronic field guide at http://leafsnap.com?
Pollination ecology addresses a wide range of topics. It has many layers and is about more than what happens between an insect and a flower in isolation. Here is an article about organic dairy farming, pollinators and plants that serves as a good example of this.
Power Eileen F. and Jane C. Stout. 2011. Organic dairy farming: impacts on insect-flower interaction networks and pollination. Journal of Applied Ecology. 48(3): 561-569. Web. [accessed 22 June 2011].
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2010.01949.x/abstract
It is very important to understand that everything is connected to everything else. This is a great addition to pollinator’s week. I will read it.
How long did it take you to research the subjects for your cards?
I was given the project from Schiffer Publishing and I had 6 weeks to do it! I looked through all of my paintings, figured out what my I needed to do to fill in the gaps. I painted the remaining subjects. I had my research assistant (my mom!) go on the internet to research each one for folklore, mythology, superstitions, interesting facts etc….. and I then I began to look for one word that would give an overall feeling that would capture each characteristic. As the paintings were finished I scanned them into my computer and worked in Adobe Photoshop to do each card design. I worked on the text of the book limiting the essays to about 150 words + the special message. After it was all done it went to Schiffer where it was proofread and formatted into book format. I never thought I would be able to get it all done in time but it was so interesting and fun that I immersed myself into it and made the deadline.
Have you ever tried the “Butterfly Collection” app?
No I haven’t but as soon as I get done answering question I am gonna go and load both of them onto my computer/ipad/iphone. They sound awesome. I let you know how I like them. Thanks for posting this.