FeMailed Artist and Scientist

Recently I was invited to join the 'Femail-XX' mail art project about female art and science.



I chose to draw this illustration, in honour of Maria Sibylla Merian (Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1647 - Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1717). As an artist and scientist, Merian has played an important, be it not so well-known, role in natural history and biology.
Did you know that there were times that people thought butterflies arose spontaneously from mud and dirt? For us it is so obvious that butterflies originate from eggs. However, not until Merian's era people got little by little aware of the connection between butterflies, caterpillars and eggs. And Maria Sibylla Merian was one of the very first to research and draw these species and their metamorphosis. And the very first to add the hosting plants to her insect illustrations.
At older age (as old as I am now) she even traveled by boat to the tropics, a 2 months journey, to Suriname. There she researched more butterflies and other insects, and she has published beautiful, and scientifically seen correct, illustrations of the insects and all stages and surrounding vegetation.

This not so correct drawing is just a small honour to a woman who deserves a high place in natural and art history.



The mail art project's full name is Women Art Scientist Testament Exploration. I couldn't resist the urge to change 'waste' into the well-known female item 'waist'.

Fe mail art

Mooie post van Moan Lisa uit de Verenigde Staten. De inhoud is zoals je ziet vertrouwelijk, dus die blijft in de envelop. Je kan per slot van rekening niet alles op het o zo openbare net zetten. Maar kijk eens, die mooie stempels!
Leuk om te zien, ook, dat de Amerikaanse brievenbus er zo heel anders uitziet dan de Nederlandse.

Hoe je trouwens 'brievenbus' goed in het Engels vertaalt, volgens mij is dat per land verschillend. In de IUOMA-groep zag ik dat ik niet de enige in verwarring ben.
Zie ook de terechte vraag en de verschillende antwoorden - uit verschillende landen - op Eva's blog.

Beautiful mail from Moan Lisa from the USA. The content, as you can read below, is confidential, so I kept the content within the envelope. I'm sure you'll understand: the internet of course is too public to publish everything.
But take a look at the beautiful rubber stamp prints! For me it's nice to see that the USA mailbox looks so different from the Dutch one.

P.S. Concerning mailboxes: I have some difficulty translating 'brievenbus' into the right English word, as every country seems to have it's own word(s). Mailbox, letterbox, postbox... The IUOMA group learnt me that I am not the only one in confusion.
In Dutch the word 'brievenbus' literally means 'letter bus/box', but it is used for two types of boxes: the box for outgoing and the one for incoming mail. However, similar to the function, the box itself is different.
See also the nice question and various answers (maybe you could add yours to it!?) on Eva's blog.



Thank you very much, Moan Lisa!