Brian Swanson BugSpeak insect series is the artist’s twist on the naturalist engraving style of scientific illustration. Each rendering is of “found” insects from here in Southern Nevada, most from his own front doorstep. Originally done as pen and ink drawings, these renderings are enlarged to enhance detail, and highlighted with color.
This series started out of wanting to create a humorous rendering of a large black bee that I found, and it sat on my drawing table collecting dust. I don’t know proper latin to describe the features of insects, so I thought, what would bees say about another bee? Hence the title of the first in the series “Bzzzz.” Now to find, or they would find me, the voice of other insects.
Brian’s tongue-in-cheek humor is apparent in each piece; he has replaced the scientific text with what Brian calls “BugSpeak”. The series was originally based on the “voice” of the specimen: bees ‘buzz’, crickets ‘chirp’, and cicadas ‘wuzz’. As the collection expanded to include specimens without a perceptible voice, the BugSpeak language evolved to represent the behaviors and physiology of the specimens. Someone once pointed out that some of these are not ‘bugs’, but arachnids or arthropods. They are all bugs to me.
A series of seven framed prints were displayed of Brian Swanson BugSpeak insect series and on semi-permanent exhibit for over 5 years at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, in the Nature exchange. This venue gave children a chance to get up close with objects from nature, with microscopes and an array of books and displays. The kids of all ages could bring in a pine cone, and exchange it for a sea shell to take home.
The Springs Preserve is an institution to show residents of the desert how to thrive in the environment in which they live. In addition, Brian taught “The Illustrated Plant” Botanical drawing classes to a class of eager students wanting to learn new techniques.