"You should have painted actual ladybugs instead. That would have been a better painting", I was told when I was first showing this painting. And I can't help but laugh a little bit. How lovely would it be to go outside in the summer and be swarmed by real ladybugs instead of their invasive competitors?
To the untrained eye, one might see those little orange bugs as just another color of a ladybug, but that is not true, and they are responsible for not just the decline in the native ladybug population, but their unwanted presence in your homes.
In this painting I placed a single, real ladybug facing the massive conglomerate of the invasives. I wanted the mound to feel unsettling and overwhelming; the jarring bright orange contrasting with the teal background and spilling out over the edges of the thin gold border. Today, in the age of information (and misinformation), and especially with the swarm of social media and a group-think culture, I can't help but draw the parallel of an individual seemingly constantly bombarded by the entire world's opinions, at all times.
You might be wondering why I'm bringing up this painting right now. (I'd love to tell you.) It is because it is recently sold! I am so happy, it will be going to a wonderful home. Having to say goodbye to it has really got me thinking about it's meaning, which I realize I do not share as in depth on just Instagram or Facebook.
And, guess who paid me a visit the next morning after I made the deal? This little friend, reminding me that real ladybugs still do exist!
Thank you for reading :)
xoxo - Miranda Raposa