The Cosmic Worm
Cosmic Worm is the story of a little worm who travels so far, that it embarks on a journey into space. These illustrations, done in watercolor and ink, marry the traditional concepts of illuminated manuscripts and bestiaries with the modern equivalent of a science textbook. While this story is more fanciful and mythical, like the illuminated manuscript, I included research into my process in order to add specificity to the illustrations, and to add realism to the "ungrounded world". Merging the earthly and other worldly, the known and the mysterious, the lines start to blur. What do we really know? When have we learned all there is to know about something? It hasn't happened yet.
This worm, like all worms, lives in the darkness in a constant state of discovery. Worms have many connotations due to their importance in the cycles of life and death, and their delicate forms, and yet they are vital to the health of our ecosystems. I want to reconnect with that curious side of myself, a journey that has been given a clearer path through the process of these works.
In this first iteration of my original story, I wanted to work with the materials I had researched and depicted. I used dirt from my garden and made mud. This mud I poured onto a large sheet of Plexiglas and dried in the sun for a day. I then etched away the mud to make the shape of the worm. To my surprise and joy, the lines and spaces emanating from the worm that were meant to be light, or growing knowledge seeping through, began to look like worm tunnels or roots.
Stars and roots intermingle in this etching as the more you compare the two seemingly separate worlds, the more they begin to looks like each other.