Drawings of life

2015
Photography and drawing

One day, while walking through the forest, I saw a drawing on a leaf. From that moment on I started collecting leaves with drawings.

With the help of the Biologists at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, I learned that these drawings are made by a group of insects called leaf miner insects, composed of some species of moths, bees or wasps. These insects lay their eggs under the superficial tissue of leaves and when they emerge, the larvae start eating and growing while they move through the leaf, generating their walking traces.

The pattern or “drawing” is the image of the whole lifetime of an organism from birth till the moment they go through metamorphosis, grows wings and flies to repeat the living cycle. This trace-drawing can be scientifically analyzed, and according to its form, one can know what kind of insect made it. The line is thin at the beginning and as the larvae grows older the line gets wider, giving us a sense of movement, direction and time.

Inspired by these leaves, I decided to analyze for one entire day my path, drawing it on a paper sheet. Preserving the same type of line from the miner insects that widens up and develops with time, paying close attention to subjects, landscapes, moods and things related to my daily life.

The work consists of 8 photographs A4 lambda print over cotton matte paper from tree leaves Intervened by miner insects and one drawing (50 x 30 cm) made with pencil and brush.