Bugs in the System

The Maleny Printmakers current exhibition at Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve, Maleny, is called ‘Bugs in the System’. If you are looking for us we are in the theatrette next to the observation platform which is above the cafe. It’s a good coffee stop – and with glorious views to the Glasshouse Mountains.

I’m on duty today so get to see all the works, but first off I’ll tell you about mine. I have three works in the exhibition, one is a linoprint with handstitching and the other two are cyanotypes.

Rainforest Lepidoptera

Butterflies do have lovely shapes and filling a shape with text is always appealing. We had been given a list of the species of bugs found in the Mary Cairncross rainforest so there were all those wonderful scientific names of the butterflies to play around with. I have to admit though that it is a bit tedious cutting out all those letters in lino – and backwards! The handstitching alludes to the rain necessary for the survival of the rainforest.

The Butterfly Effect and Mary Cairncross Collection

The butterflies in both these works are life size – and no, I didn’t catch them and trace around them. The internet is a wonderful source of butterfly shapes and wing spans! The shapes, however, are of the butterflies that inhabit the Mary Cairncross rainforest. I couldn’t make up my mind whether to go for chaos or order, so did both. The chaotic one refers to the old idea of The Butterfly Effect which I thought was apt in this year of rapidly spreading COVID-19. The second work references natural history collections of the past and present and there was a degree of boyish delight and an affinity with Charles Darwin, David Attenborough and Gerald Durrell in selecting and arranging my ‘collection’.

The weather forecast for today had not been good. Yesterday was awful with storms passing through, strong winds and hail in places. Dorothy Haig and I were on duty from 10 – 2. We’d had a pleasant day chatting and having a close look at the works but very few visitors – it really wasn’t a ‘scenic reserve’ type of day!

The rest of the exhibition

One of the nice things about exhibiting at Mary Cairncross is that you get to know more about the rainforest, and it’s inhabitants. This is our third exhibition there: the first one showcasing the creatures of the night, and the second one on birds.

There is a diversity of work on display from artists Jillian Bergman, Cholena Drew Hughes, myself, Marie Farr, Neville Field, Dorothy Haig, Peter McLean, Jenni Matthews, Mathilda Muller, Karen Shaw and Melissa Stannard. The printmaking processes used were almost as varied as the ‘bugs’ and included etching, linocut, cyanotype, polyester plate lithograph, wood engraving, drypoint etching, silkscreen and Tetrapak printing.

So, here are some of our ‘bugs’.