Sumi-e paper, self-made gouache, pencil, oil and chalk pencils
Size each sheet 64 x 45 cm

From May 17, 2022 to May 16, 2023, Mariëlle Videler worked on 365 INSECTS every day; Let the insects sing to the energy. Just like with the birds and the plants: not by looking at the subject or thinking about it, but by drawing with her fingers, the INSECT slowly appeared through her handwriting. They are huge. And, walk, fly or crawl off the paper, so to speak. Aren't you often just too late to get a good look at an insect?

Every nine days she made a new portion of paint, gouache, based on black pigment. Once again Mariëlle chose black to refer to seeing with the inner eye from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. For this she visited the last pigment mill in the Netherlands in Zaandam. For murals such as in medieval tombs, cattle bones were often used to mix black. A pigment made from plants: old vineyards was used for the INSECT series. She applied the black gouache with her fingers. In this basic form you can recognize movements of her hand and fingerprints. After this layer had dried, she drew details such as hairs, structures, antennae and eyes on the black layer with a very fine pencil and white oil and chalk pencils.

Part of the project Reconstructing the Senses; 365 BIRDS, 365 PLANTS, 365 INSECTS