Botanical dreams exhibited as part of the BARTBA-T exhibition in La Lonja, Barbate.
Mapeo botánico
“Mapeo Botánico” es un experimento de extracción de colores, todos los colores fueron hechos con tintes y tintas botánicas; de flores, hojas, corteza, frutas y raíces. La obra es un proceso en constante evolución, y una relación de profundizar con la vida vegetal y el medio ambiente que me rodea. Todo ha sido teñido con plantas que crecen en esta zona, es un trabajo específico del lugar.
Para trabajar con plantas necesitas conocerlas, aprender cuales son, dónde y cómo crecen. Cada planta tiene sus propias características; qué condiciones favorece para su crecimiento, qué polinizadores atrae, qué larvas se alimentan de ellas; el trabajo es parte investigación y parte exploración de los usos. Requiere sumergirse y prestar atención.
Nuestra historia de relación con las plantas es larga y dependemos de las plantas para la mayoría de las cosas en nuestra vida. En el pasado era necesario conocer las plantas que nos rodean para la comida, la medicina, la fabricación y el teñido. Y este era un conocimiento importante y sigue siéndolo, aunque para nuestra vida diaria ya no dependamos tanto de él. En el trabajo con las plantas de una manera práctica es importante saber lo que es tóxico y podría ser potencialmente peligroso.
El proceso de teñido es experimental, lúdico, desordenado. Descubrí que es bueno llevar registros, que es mejor ser metódico, que esto es química y que me gusta. Hago colores que pueden desvanecerse y eso está bien, que no todo es permanente; este es un trabajo de proceso donde un resultado fijo no es necesariamente importante. Si los colores se desaparecen, las telas pueden ser teñidas de nuevo.
Colecciono flores y mantengo un ojo curioso abierto a nuevas plantas con las que trabajar. Sólo busco lo que es abundante, a menudo tomo flores u hojas que han caído al suelo. Un metodo que uso con tarros solares no usan energía, los materiales vegetales y las telas se dejan en un tarro al sol. Es un proceso de mínimo impacto y máxima paciencia.
En la paleta de colores de los campos de Vejer oxalis y acebuche son las joyas aquí para mí. Por su riqueza de color y presencia, tan ubicua y llamativa. Las acebuchinas que tiñen el suelo bajo los árboles, los excrementos de pájaros púrpuras que encuentro en mi coche, este es un color serio; un hermoso azul púrpura profundo. El oxalis, Oxalis pes-caprae conocido aquí coloquialmente como vinagretas, es el alegre amarillo que barre el paisaje en primavera. Aunque es invasiva, no ha demostrado serlo negativamente y hace que el color del tinte amarillo del sol sea tan radiante como la propia flor.
Sueños botánicos
Hace tiempo que me interesa la estructura del geodomo, los patrones geométricos de las formas que se repiten. Durante el largo proceso de experimentos con tintes, recolectando material vegetal a través de las estaciones, tuve la idea de ver todos los colores juntos en un espacio donde pudieran ser contemplados como un todo. Considerar el geodomo me ayudó a encontrar una manera de encajar estas ideas.
Veía los materiales que teñía en el tendedero fuera de mi casa, en tarros, en cubos y en sartenes en mi cocina. En mis reflexiones durante los procesos consideré mi relación con la vida vegetal, del ser con el medio ambiente, la dicotomía del interior con el exterior. Llevo las plantas a mi cocina para extraer su color. Observo y recojo lo que crece a mi alrededor. Contemplaciones sobre las plantas y color y relaciones.
No tenía ni idea de cómo se vería todo hasta que lo junté, cuando se le dio forma como un todo con la estructura del geodomo. La primera vez que monté la estructura en Santa Lucía, cerca de donde fui creado había una hermosa sensación de armonía, de verlo desde el exterior colocado dentro del paisaje, de sentarse dentro de él y ver la luz del sol difundida a través del tejido de color. Para ver los colores destilados del entorno sentado dentro del entorno.
Por ahora el domo se sentará aquí, junto al río Barbate. Desde aquí se moverá para sentarse dentro de los diferentes ambientes de La Janda. Para habitar el paisaje del que fue creada.
Gracias a la Consejería de Cultura y Patrimonio Histórico de la Junta de Andalucía por la financiación que permitió la creación de esta obra.
The creation of the geodome for Sueños Botánicos meant quite a lot of leftover material from the off cuts as I formed triangles. I dreamed up the dome as a place to sleep, to contemplate our relationship with plants, to the world around us whilst cocooned inside plant colours. A patchwork quilt was then in some ways the obvious solution to make use of the waste.
I did not know how to thread the sewing machine without help before I started. * So thank you to my budding seamstress daughter and partner for their help. I also had no idea about how to make a quilt. I am amazed at what you can do with some YouTube tutorials. I wish I had the link to share but can’t retrace my internet steps. Darleen from America set me on an easy make triangles with two squares technique in a couple of minutes, for which I am eternally grateful.
I really enjoyed the process, the adventure. Finding solutions for problems of how to do various stages as I came across them. And also for the learning process and acceptance of imperfection. I like to be tidy and do things well. I have a bit of a perfectionist problem which leads to procrastination and paralysis. I embraced imperfection with this quilt. The points of the shapes do not meet. The thread is sometimes (often) tangled. I used different coloured threads because I was too impatient to wait until I could source the same coloured thread again. The material puckers in places. But I love it. I love that I created this beautiful tactile object. I love to wrap myself into it. I love that the imperfections are woven into it as part of a visible learning process.
We are on the look out for a short eared owl that has been seen recently in the area. We see lots of storks, cranes, spoonbills, glossy ibis, grey herons. A peregrine falcon, marsh harrier and black winged kite. We do not see the short eared owl. We follow tracks in the mud near the river which are perhaps fox? perhaps mongoose?
The most beautiful thing is the enthusiasm of the children, following the line of green bushes to the electricity post, to the left then down a bit to find the cranes amongst the storks with the binoculars.
Then in the dusk as we head home we see a fox. We all see it, in the grasses by the water channel, a bushy tailed and healthy adult fox, then it disappears into the darkness.
I was not interested in making colour with anything other than plants.
I was aware of cochineal and its history. I have seen the chumbera prickly pears cacti wither succumbing to their insect parasite. I have marveled at the cochineal insects in my garden, I initially thought them to be a strange fungi.
I read about cochineal as I investigated the history of colour. The source of bright pinks, reds and organges from Mexico that were traded throughout the world. Both the cochineal and their cacti host are considered invasive species here in Andalucia. Initially this had surprised me, the chumbera seemed so ubiquitous and settled in the landscape. I am learning, I am also not autochthonous.
I am not interested in making colour with anything other than plants. Then a neighbour cuts an infected cactus and I find myself with cochineal and curiosity.
Sometimes when you fall in love you want to tell everyone about it. Sometimes with love there is also a need to be careful, to tenderly nuture. When I fell in love with swifts I wanted to SHOUT all about it. These birds are increible, amazing and I have said so often otherwordly. Their realm is the air and they really are like creatures from another realm. I felt this when I cared for them.
Swifts are special. I felt it in my first close encounter with them and I knew it when I learned about them. It becomes the kind of information you just have to pass on. So with colleagues from my association dedicated to environmental education Ecoágora, we made a book for children, all about swifts. We made this as a freely downloadable PDF. You can read it here IN ENGLISH or EN ESPAÑOL.
Santa Lucia Moths is a group I share with my friends Dave Grundy moth expert and Mr Stephen Knapp. In early March we had a idyllic weekend together, Dave came to visit with his friend Kevin to trap moths with us in Santa Lucia and La Muela. We were joined by my friends Richard and Luci who had come for a geodome building plan we had and enthusiastically embraced the weekend moth adventure. We didn’t know then how serious the coronovirus pandemic would become and just after this weekend we all found ourselves isolated and confined in different places. Dave had luckily just moved to CIMA Tarifa (Centro Internacional de Migración de Aves) where he will be studying moths for the next couple of months. We maintain an amusing communication via a WhatsApp group about clove oil, moths and quarantine. Dave sends us moths each day to try to identify, like a moth exam. It becomes a grounding daily ritual in the crazy of the virus crisis. Kind of like doing a daily newspaper crossword. Some days I am utterly stumped. I record here the quarantine moths.
We measure everyone in the morning and the evening. B shrinks 4cm during the day. N and R are the same height at the end of the day even though R is really a 1cm taller.
Day 14: 29.03.2020
Spanish Carpet Scotopteryx peribolata
Cilix hispanica
Puss Moth Cerura vinula
Plant lettuces.
Day 15: 30.03.2020
Agrotis spinifera
Menophra japygiaria
Phyllodesma kermesifolia
Menophra abruptaria
These drove me crazy. The Menophra abruptaria which was referred to as “the toilet moth” (as it was observed in my outside toilet) and moth 2 (from Daves trap) the Menophra japygiaria, similar but different was a real challenge. And it took a long while to get to the final identification.
Day 16: 31.03.2020
The moths of the previous day were not all identified until today.
Day 17: 1.04.2020
Eutelia adulatrix
Golden Twin Spot, Chrysodeixis chacites + Silver Y, Autograppha gamma
I wake up to the sound of bee-eaters flying through. The first I hear this Spring. The sky is full of their chirruping.
Nodaria nodosalis
Harpyia milhauseri
Streblote panda
Day 22: 6.04.2020
I go shopping to Vejer and see that the swifts have returned to their nesting colony. Bee-eaters and swifts pass through all day.
Noctua pronuba
Ocnogyna zoraida
Heliothis peltigera
Day 23: 7.04.2020
Portland Ribbon Wave Idaea degeneraria
Ni Moth Trichoplusia ni
Oak Hawkmoth Marumba quercus
Time lapse animation with Martha.
Day 24: 8.04.2020
Hundreds of bee-eaters. A mongoose crosses the road in front of me. No moths today.
Day 25: 9.04.2020
No moths. Nightingales sing in the night.
Day 26: 10.04.2020
Polyploca ridens
Ekboarmia atlanticaria
Hoyosia codeti
Day 27: 11.04.2020
Fridays moths take two days to identify. Make a really good lasagna – red lentils, fried aubergine and vegetable tomato sauce. Shibori paper folding and dyeing.
Day 28: 12.04.2020
Mythimna unipuncta
Heliothis nubigera
Hyles livornica
Day 29: 13.04.2020
Dave is busy with moths having set 7 traps the previous night. He counts 83 species after checking only 3 traps by 1.30pm. A package arrives for Stephen and I with our UV disco light for making an improvised moth trap. Exciting but I can’t find a cardboard box.
Day 30: 14.04.2020
Ochropleura plectra
Menophra japygiara
Setaceous Hebrew Character Xestia c-nigrum
Corscina cribaria
Idaea
Arctia villica
Now there are more moths to identify. There were more than these six. I had left the UV light with some white material as I didn’t have time to make a trap so just photographed what I saw flittering aorund. The Arctia villica is from Stephens trap. It was a busy day so I wasn’t able to keep up with all the moth identifying that was going on in our group chat.
I did however find time to improvise a moth trap. Behold:
Improvised moth trap using a paper lined plastic crate, lots of sellotape and cardboard.
I edit a video of hands folding paper.
Day 31: 15.04.2020
Bad moth trap news. Last night was thunderstorms and crazy lightening. I brought the moth trap under the cover of the porch and it was busy with moths. When I went to bed I left a wood board over the trap but in the morning there were only 3 moths! Every one of them had somehow managed to escape. Still what I was left with were Arctia villica and Phyllodesma kermesifolia so I was happy. The Acronicta psi was one of the only ones I managed to identify from the evening as it sat outside of the trap, but it was gone by the morning.
Acronicta psi
Cream Spot Tiger Arctia villica
Phyllodesma kermesifolia
Day 32: 16.04.2020
Me the moths, the owls and the nightingales. I go to sit by the light and moths fly chaotically around me. I like the way their eyes shine in the night. Mostly they sat on top of the trap but I take photos of some in the night and some in the morning. I make adjustments during the day, cutting perspex to make a better top and entrance to the trap.
Willow Beauty Peribatodes rhomboidaria
Phytheochroa duponchelana
Corscina cribaria
Idaea eugeniata
Lime-speck Pug Eupithecia centaureata
Gold Triangle Hypsopygia costalis
Portland Ribbon Wave Idaea degeneraria
Willow Beauty Peribatodes rhomboidaria
Day 33: 17.04.2020
Eutelia adulatrix
Palpita vitrealis
Day 34: 18.04.2020
Isturgia spodiaria
Gerinia honoraria
Day 35: 19.04.2020
There is a huge spider in the moth trap this morning. Samosas.
Menophra japygiara
Eublemma ostrina
Ekboarmia atlanticaria
Catarhoe basocheiata + Nodaria nodosalis
Arctia villica
Isturgia spodiaria
Xenochlorodes olympiaria
Endotricha flammealis
Idaea ostrinaria
Willow Beauty Peribatodes rhomboidaria
Lamoria anella + uncinula
Unknown spider. Really big.
Day 36: 20.04.2020
Moth day off. Rain. Tooth ache (Stephen) tired low energy day (me).
Day 37: 21.04.2020
Inspired by Beethoven’s 5th Symphony begin piano learning project with Martha. Martha and I make star constellation projectors.
Stephens moths. I start reading The Jungle Book with M. We both cry a tear at the end of the first chapter. Stormy windy day.
Day 41: 25.04.2020
Day 42: 26.04.2020
Freedom! Or a certain type of new found liberty in the form of an hour walk with children under 14.
Interestingly this coincides with a day of huge migration. At first I see swifts and Griffon vultures then I notice higher in the sky hundreds and hundreds of Black kites. It is the biggest number of migrating raptors I have seen since Spring migration started.
Stephen had a deaths head hawk moth this morning.
Day 43: 27.04.2020
Lesser Yellow Underwing Noctua comes
Vines Rustic Hoplodrina ambigua
Anania testacealis
Heart and Dart Agrotis exclamationis
I surprised myself by identifying these correctly first time. The nightingales sing loudly in the night. I read that it is the males who haven’t found a partner that sing, which gave the song a whole different feeling / meaning.
Super wonderful walk with M.
Day 44: 28.04.2020
Day 45: 29.04.2020
Day 46:30.04.2020
Day 47: 01.05.2020
Leopard moth. I am busy working on the urban nest mapping project making a workbook for children.
Day 48:02.05.2020
Today will be the last day I record here. Things have changed. From today we can go out for walks and confinement feels… less confined. I am busy with urban birds. I end with the Passenger, Dysgonia algira. We now have an active way of recording our moths in a closed group. Luci and Ricard have joined us there too as they have also made a makeshift moth trap and bought the field guide. Moth life goes on.
A
fieldtrip to the Salina de la Esperanza after the IV Congreso
de Biodiversidad y Conservación de la Naturaleza
CONSERBIO.
In
the same morning we visited industrial salinas
in the same wetland area. La Esperanza is
used an outdoor living laboratory by the University of Cadiz. It is a
project for the sustainable development of the salt pans, recovering
an activity that has shaped the cultural and natural landscape of the
area.
I stopped in the underpass to look at the nest of the red rumped swallow Cecropis daurica. I was curious to see if the nest was occupied and curious to see its form, similar to a barn swallow but with a sort of elongated tube entrance. An impressive sculpture. I am fascinated by swallow and martin nests, laborious, meticulous beautiful structures, tiny blobs of mud, grass and saliva (each nest it is calculated is 1000 blobs of mud that they have flown, collected and brought back to make their nest).
I like that it is in this place. A liminal space between human and wild. It is wild here in the concrete, under the motorway. A good place for a nest I think, sheltered like the swallows like it, yet a place that would go unnoticed. I think of the nests I saw removed and this is place that most would not notice there is a nest, or if they did they would not care. No one cares about dirty walls under here.
I look around and find a lot of life. A huge escolopendra centipede. Bee and wasp nests.
My
first foray into the world of moths was when Tim “the moth man”
Barker local moth expert set up a moth trap in my parents back
garden. I sat in the evening with the bright light of the moth trap,
moths fluttering around me, fascinated.
The
crowd of curious enthusiasts was ever growing as neighbours and
friends heard about what we are doing and joined our early morning
moth reveals. It helps to have a master in our midst, Tim whose
knowledge is awesome and inspiring.
Tim is the moth recorder for County Durham. For 10 years he set up a moth trap every night above the Tap & Spile pub recording the night life above the night life below.
