Vanishing XI (Bay Checkerspot Butterfly) by Holly Downing

Vanishing XI (Bay Checkerspot Butterfly) by Holly Downing

Vanishing XI (Bay Checkerspot Butterfly)

Holly Downing

Please call us at 707-546-7352 or email artannex@aol.com to purchase this item.
Title

Vanishing XI (Bay Checkerspot Butterfly)

 
Artist

Holly Downing

  1948 - PRESENT (biography)
Year
2020  
Technique
mezzotint with hand applied color 
Image Size
2 15/16 x 2 15/" !6" platemark 
Signature
pencil, lower right 
Edition Size
2 of 25  
Annotations
pencil titled and dated in lower margin 
Reference
 
Paper
antique-white Rives BFK 
State
published 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
HD228 
Price
$250.00 
Description

This hand-colored mezzotint is from a series of prints Holly Downing has been doing featuring vanishing species, in this case, invertebrates. Each impression is printed in black and then hand-colored by the artist. There may be slight variations between impressions.

The striking Bay Checkerspot is a butterfly endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area and is threatened. The caterpillars eat only dwarf plantain and purple owl’s clover, both of which grow only in serpentine soils, which are high in magnesium and heavy metals, and low in nutrients such as nitrogen. Increased carbon dioxide from traffic has altered the soils these plants depend upon. Downing achieves the sense of something that is at once important and ephemeral; as much immortal in its significance as it is teetering on a precipice.

 

Please call us at 707-546-7352 or email artannex@aol.com to purchase this item.