228. Bark beetle burb
Acrylics and oils on cotton canvas 153cm h x 102cm w
Enlargement of an area 14cm x 10cm from the surface of a piece of firewood in Tasmania, after the bark had fallen off. Channels ("galleries") created by the larvae of bark beetles are a diary of their life from hatching through growing while feeding on the tree to emergence as adults where the grooves terminate at a blunt end. I loved the idea of their horizonless landscape, and the dark section of oil galleries painted over an acrylic background mimics that landscape completely and always in the dark.