I was just looking over the new prints I made in 2025. Think about portraying pollinators. This print shows a great little pollinator in the garden: a transverse-banded flower fly (Eristalis transversa) on Echinacea purpurea or purple coneflower. Because of its yellow stripes, tendency to hover (it’s a hover fly after all) and love of flowers, this little insect can be mistaken for a bee, but it’s a bee-mimic fly. 🧵1/2
The transverse-banded flower fly and purple coneflowers are native to eastern North America. Each print is made by hand on assorted, beautiful Japanese washi papers and collaged to make the final 8” x 10” image, which are hand-embellished with posca pens.
#linocut #printmaking #washi #flowerFly #insect #pollinator #echinacea #coneflower #sciart #mastoArt
🧵2/2
Time to carve a new block! This is a transverse-banded flower fly in progress. Because of its yellow and black stripes, tendency to hover (it’s a hover fly after all) and love of flowers, it can be mistaken for a bee. But no, it’s a fly. The eyes are the real giveaway for this bee mimic, to my mind. While not a bee, it is an excellent pollinator and another friend to gardeners.
#linocut #printmaking #flowerFly #insect #sciart #wip #pollinators #mastoArt
Ele Willoughby, PhD
José-Manuel Benito Álvarez
StarFlowerStudioNY
Eco Loki
José Manuel
cohan