Gouache, watercolor, graphite, and gold leaf

Mariesa Lenz is an artist working in watercolor, mixed media, and encaustic, capturing both the grotesque and beautiful realities of the natural world. She holds a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

Ectemnius hawaiiensis is a wasp found nowhere else on Earth. Enlarged to a scale we rarely grant to insects, its face becomes a portrait: faceted eyes patterned like lattice, and a gold clypeus that only reveals itself when seen up close. Drawn in graphite and finished in gouache with gold leaf, this piece asks a viewer to look past the strange to find the beautiful, and to consider what we owe to the small lives that belong only to the Hawaiian islands.