One day, one of my students brought me sheets of a wasp nest that he had found in his yard. The material was so beautiful, I immediately decided to incorporate them as a collage in a painting (obviously!).

My students had also recently asked me to paint a bird, and that’s when I realized that the wasp nest material would work quite well as a branch on which the bird would stand. So I got to work… And by that I mean I bought a lot of glue, because by now, I have a minimum of experience with porous textures!

I was very pleased with the result, and it reminded me to always be on the lookout for using materials and textures in a creative way. Sometimes we get disgusted by something that scares us, but there is often a chance to see that “thing” differently. Have you recently started seeing something strange in a new perspective?