Roger Peet

Cicindela Columbica (Columbia River Tiger Beetle)
$50

View larger image

Here's a print that is an attempt to say something about how we think about biodiversity. When people consider conservation, they tend to start with charismatic and beautiful creatures like tigers, elephants, eagles, or whales. These animals inspire awe with their grace and size and tend to become emblematic of the regions they inhabit or the problems that they face. This happens less often with insects, although insects are no less important to ecological processes. As tigers and wolves regulate their ecologies by limiting the numbers of herbivores that might otherwise denude a landscape, so do the predators of the insect world. The tiger beetles are a great example. They are fast and sleek and equipped with astonishing jaws. They preserve biodiversity by killing and consuming large numbers of herbivorous insects. The beetle depicted in this print has something else in common with it's big mammalian meat-eating associates: it's grievously endangered. Damming of the Columbia River has greatly diminished the sandy shore and sand-bar habitats that the beetle inhabits. Currently it's only known from isolated locations in the Snake River basin. You can read more about the beetle here.

This is a four-color sacrifice print.

4-color Reduction Blockprint
12" x 16"
Acid-free French Paper
Signed/numbered edition