This piece was part of Ida's Punctuated Evolution exhibit shown at the Washibngton & Lee's Staniar Gallery, October 2 - November 1, 2019. Punctuated Evolution presents a combination of photorealistic paintings and abstract drawings by New Orleans-based artist Ida Floreak. Bones, leaves, insects and other artifacts of the natural world are carefully rendered and composed on her canvases to create poetic studies of the beauty inherent in the natural world. Her recent series of non-representational drawings rely more on instinct than observation. Moving between controlled, realistic painting and loose, abstract drawing, Floreak is exploring artistic relationships between the scientific and mystical, knowledge and intuition. Floreak holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design where she studied painting and scientific illustration. FROM THE ARTIST: It's a long time favorite. I love cicadas as subjects obviously because they're beautiful - the translucency and structure of the wings is amazing - but there's also something incredible and poetic about the way that they live in these long term cycles - 17 years underground for a brief period of life above ground. I think this piece is mostly a piece about time - a meditation on how we spend and use it. At the time it was made I was also paying a lot of attention to the colors of sunsets in the eastern sky. I'm not sure if that makes sense but the background gradient is inspired by the way the brilliance of a southern sunset reflects back and makes this soft, tranquil backdrop when you look the other way.