Style Imitating Art: Jeweled Caddisflies by Hubert Duprat

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Terri of MeadowTree Style, and Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join! You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Shelbee or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

The Inspiration Artwork

The inspiration artwork was chosen by Salazar. You can read why she picked this work here.

The Artwork

Jeweled Caddisflies by Hubert Duprat

About the Artist: Hubert Duprat

Hubert Duprat is a French artist known primarily for his unusual artistic approach which creates a collaboration between caddisfly larvae and precious metals and stones. Born in 1957, Duprat became interested in nature from a very young age, spending most of his childhood in southern France exploring and experiencing what the outdoors had to offer. In 1979, he conceived the idea to create structural art with caddisflies after observing people panning for gold in the French Ariège River. Combined with his previous knowledge of how caddisfly larvae construct their casings, he decided to give them different materials than what are in their natural surroundings and see what happens. The result is stunning, as you can see.

However, Duprat does not accept full credit for this artistic idea. He cites historical entomologists François-Jules Pictet and Jean-Henri Fabre, who both conducted similar experiments, as his inspiration for this project. Pictet’s work was published in 1834 and is one of the earliest recorded bodies of research on the development of caddisfly casings. In Duprat’s four decades of work with caddisflies, his personal body of knowledge on these insects rivals that of any scientifically trained entomologist.

The artist is very clear about the immense amount of respect he has for the caddisfly larvae. From what I have read, caddisflies have the ability to adapt quickly to their new artificial environment and simply get straight to building their casings as if nothing has changed. No larvae are harmed in the process.

Duprat currently lives in the south of France where he continues his work with caddisfly larva as well as creating other art in a variety of different styles and mediums.

About the Art: Jeweled Caddisflies

With 14,500 identified species, caddisflies can be found in every river and freshwater habitat in the world. The insect larvae crawl through the sediment creating protective casings from whatever materials they find in their environment including sand, pebbles, twigs, and bits of bone or shell. The insects excrete silk from their salivary glands that acts as an adhesive to stick all the pieces together in the shape of a protective tube. After a few weeks, the fully developed caddisfly emerges from the casing and immediately flies away leaving its cocoon behind.

After conceiving of this idea, Duprat collected larvae from their natural habitat and moved them to an aquarium which was similar to their natural habitat. He gently removed the larvae from their natural casings and then provided them with alternative materials such as gold flakes, turquoise, opals, lapis lazuli, coral, pearls, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. The insects don’t always use all of the different materials provided and some seem to show better skill at facilitating certain materials than others. Sometimes when a casing is left behind, a new larvae may repurpose for its own, changing the size and dimensions if necessary. A bug that recycles and repurposes! Well, that’s a bug I could be friends with!

If you check out some of the links I provided below, you will find videos of the artist discussing his work with caddisflies as well as videos of the caddisfly larva at work on their casings. It is all so very fascinating and one of the reasons Style Imitating Art is one of my favorite series in all of blogland!

References/Resources

• Wikipedia: Hubert Duprat
• Artist Project/Trichopterae-Bug Bling by Hubert Duprat
• Artist Hubert Duprat Collaborates with Caddisfly Larvae as They Build Aquatic Cocoons from Gold and Pearls
• Hubert Duprat’s Jeweled Caddisflies
• insect art: hubert duprat
• French Artist Gives Caddisfly Larvae Gold and Jewels to Build Their Protective Cases
• UNDERWATER ARCHITECTS: THE CADDISFLY ART OF HUBERT DUPRAT
• Hubert Duprat: Studio-Grown Art

About My Outfit

After staring at the image of the four caddisfly casings in grid format for a few days, four things really began to stand out to me. First, second, and most obvious, are all the gorgeous shiny gold bits and the opulence of the glossy pearls. Third is the one tiny bit of turquoise in the upper left casing that stands out against all the neutral colors of gold and pearl. And fourth is the starkness of the white background.

All the gold and pearly bits made me immediately think of this gold and pearl statement necklace that I have had for years. I found it in the clearance bin at Walmart for $2. I have worn it countless times and it never fails to garner compliments, so it was $2 well spent! The teensy turquoise bead carried a big enough impact for me that all I could think of to wear was my bright turquoise maxi dress. And it was actually the white background of the photograph that prompted me to dig out this old white cocoon cardigan. I thought a cocoon cardigan was totally perfect to represent cocoon art.

Once I had the basics all together, I started incorporating as many glittering, shiny, pearly, shimmering things that I could find. With my gold and pearl statement necklace, I added long gold dangly earrings, a silver belt, multicolored crystal barrettes, a gold flecked paisley scarf, and my pearl encrusted denim jacket. I completed the outfit with my white cowgirl boots and headed to the river, where the caddisflies live, to take some photographs. Once again, I was totally pleased with the outcome. It is not a combination I would have otherwise created, but it is an outfit that I will absolutely wear again!

Before I go, I want to share a story about my scarf. I have three that are very similar and I adore the boho vibe of them. I bought all three from a tiny gift shop in Montclair, New Jersey, that was called Middle Eastern Gifts. It was owned by a lovely couple from India and I shopped there all the time when I lived in that area in the early 2000s. Sadly, I recently discovered that their small business was another one that succumbed to Covid and they were forced to close. But that’s not the story I wanted to share.

In the midst of my living room makeover, I was struggling to find valances that I like for the two small living room windows on either side of the fireplace. I ended up using two of these scarves and they look really awesome as curtains. When we were heading out to photograph this outfit, my husband quickly asked me, “Are you wearing a curtain right now?” I responded, “Nope. It is still a scarf even though I hung it as a curtain. So really I am just wearing a scarf. But I have worn (and rocked) a curtain before so please don’t question me when it comes to my fashion choices!”

That is it for this week’s Style Imitating Art look. So how do you think I did with this challenge? I hope you enjoyed it and feel inspired to play along!

Be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of the painting as well as Terri’s take on it. If you would like to participate in this challenge and have your photo included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, be sure to email your photos to her by Tuesday, March 28, 2023, by 10:00 p.m. EST. I am excited to see what you all style! 

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Joining with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Dress and Belt-Torrid / Sweater-Old Navy / Jacket-Burlington Coat Factory / Boots-Idyllwind Fueled by Miranda Lambert / Necklace-Walmart / Scarf-Middle Eastern Gifts / Earrings and Barettes-Old