The Disappearing Tiny Beasts of my Wild Imagining

Gallery Julius will feature work by Ellen Haffar, of Pompey, NY. Haffar's pieces celebrate those tiny, spineless beasts in peril from environmental threats - bees, butterflies, and fireflies.

Haffar explains, "I watch bumblebees and honey bees swerve as they zoom across the landscape, fearless pilots following ultraviolet markers like runways guiding them to land on flowers, gathering their treasured golden cargo of pollen...I watch the monarch butterflies, named by early settlers who saw in their stately movements a reminder of their Monarch, Prince William of Orange...These monarchs dine exclusively on milkweed, a plant persecuted by modern farm technology and chemicals. Their delicate herd has been decimated – numbering a fourth of what they did at the end of the 20th century. In this body of work you will find recurring images of milkweed pods with parachuting seeds, tiger-striped and horned caterpillars, and the iridescent wings and graphic markings of the butterflies....I watch the twinkling lights of fireflies dancing through the garden and the trees, silently communicating romantic intentions to one another, reminding us of the approaching summer. This world of tiny beasts blazes before our eyes, a feast of beauty, unperceived, unprotected."

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.