Artist Statement for Web of Life

As I got ready to make the "Web of Life" mobile, I began by examining spider web pictures taken by the naturalists at Edwin Warner Park. I looked at webs more closely, found information on the Internet and checked out several books. The more I got involved with the project, the more respect I found for spiders and their environment. I wanted to make a mobile that continued the themes I've been working on for years while commenting on a specific aspect of nature. While I've always loved looking at spiders in their environment, I never realized how many types there are (38,000 known spider species), how many uses they have for silk, or their wide variety of webs-not to mention their eating or mating habits.

For the mobile, I chose to make a funnel web, a dew-laden orb web and an egg sac. I used several different gauges of wire because most spiders extrude up to four types of silk. Orb weavers can make seven.

As I studied different types of orb webs, I was most intrigued by the ones caught in the rain because that shows their beauty as well as their strength. To get the same effect, I used crystal beads strung on wire. I also included a small green spider on this web. When orb weavers look for mates, they rhythmically pluck a web to communicate with each other.

Like most spiders, funnel-web weavers patiently wait for their prey inside homes that look like tunnels. Their weaving techniques may look unplanned, but they are by design. I made my funnel web by weaving several different gauges of wire onto a frame then forming it into a funnel.

To make an egg sack, the female spins a thick mat of silk on vegetation. After she lays her eggs, she covers them in several silk sheets before finally coating the sac with a parchment like silk. I made my egg sac by forming sheets of silk gauze over a wire base. The bar hanging just over the sac is its support in the same way a single blade of grass would be for a real sac.

Adrienne Mason wrote my favorite spider-reference book, The World of the Spider, which can be found at the local bookstore or through www.sierraclub.org/books. In her book, she printed a quotation from one of my favorite children's stories, E.B. White's Charlotte's Web.

"What 's so miraculous about a spider's web?" said Mrs. Arable.
"I don't see why you say a web is a miracle-it's just a web."
"Ever try to spin one?" asked Dr. Dorian.

My thanks to The Friends of Warner Parks, as well as to the staff of Edwin Warner for making this project possible and lending me support.