caterpillar's garden: praying mantis

Sunday, September 30, 2012

praying mantis

The longer summer continues, the bigger all insects seem to get. Weird how this little fellow both captures my eye and repels at the same time. Mesmerizing color and shape, but those claws...

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Who is Caterpillar?

My name is Cathelijne (Cat).

I'm Dutch, but I live with my family on a lush Greek island.

Our house is situated in an ancient olive grove, next to a mountainside pine tree forest: Plenty of nature to get inspired by!

We share our garden with our big, yellow dog Nemo, a handful of chickens and of course lizards, birds and a tortoise. Unfortunately (most will agree, except for a biologist or two), we also have the occasionally trespassing snake and a rather large population of scorpions. In their case we stick to the golden rule: live and let live.

Some time ago

I was raised in the region of Waterland and you don't have to speak Dutch to understand it is pretty wet. Waterland consists of flat, green polders intersected by dikes and canals, stretching out beyond the horizon, under low, grey skies. You can almost imagine the windmill, but me and my brother grew up in a house filled with books, since both our parents taught Dutch literature.

As a child, I loved to journey in those books, but even more so I liked to travel in my own imagination and to draw and paint whatever I encountered there.

I went to study History of Art (BA) and Mediterranean Archaeology (MA) at the University of Amsterdam. Finally, I could travel for real. I spent long summers at various excavations, making drawings of artifacts and archaeological illustrations.

Still, I longed to create things of my own so I went to study Painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

I left the drizzling, grey North when I met my Greek husband, and went to live in the warm and welcoming South.