Flights of fancy
You might expect to find insect likenesses filling every corner of the home studio of an artist labeled “the bug guy” (a name that has always irked him, but that he’s come to accept). Not so with South Portland artist Mike Libby.
His Insect Lab is confined to a smallish room with two tables, a professional photography lamp and several shipping boxes. This is where, with the care and precision that comes from 10 years of practice, Libby transforms actual bugs into works of art by adorning them with antique watch parts and other mechanisms to create “a celebration of the contradictions between nature and technology.”
Each year, Libby’s busy season runs from the end of summer until the end of December. This year, however, the workload is heavier. A holiday catalog that came out in October may have had a little something to do with that.
Open the 2009 Neiman Marcus Christmas Book to page 59. There, among his-and-her sport aircraft, the world’s fastest electric motorcycle and a customized 2010 Jaguar, you’ll see Libby’s limited edition set of nine sculptures — one of nine luxe gifts included in the catalog. Each of the sculptures features the African Flower Beetle, which measures a petite 8.5 inches across, adorned with gears and other antique watch parts. They sell for $8,500 each.
“It’s a million dollars of free advertising,” Libby says of the catalog placement. “Usually, I wait to make projections, but this is already one of my best holiday seasons.”
Libby’s inspiration to work with insects and watches came from a confluence of coincidence. One day, he found a dead, intact beetle near a vending machine. Sometime later, locating an old Mickey Mouse watch, he was struck by how both objects resembled jewels.
“It makes so much sense that the two go together; they compare and contrast so well,” he says, noting that engineers often look to insect physiology and movement for inspiration. “So I’m using this weird skill I’ve developed to put them together without being grotesque.”
So how did an artist from Maine with science fiction sculptures find himself in the Neiman Marcus book? It started about a year ago, when Device Gallery in San Diego, one of the galleries that represents Libby, took a chance.
“They fired a shot across the bow of Neiman Marcus, and they liked my work,” Libby says. “After I filled out my final application where I spelled out the specs of how I would make these for the catalog, it was a matter of weeks before I got the news. I found out just before the summer.”
Libby has taken this honor in stride. His work tends to stand out and create a splash whenever he exhibits at craft shows — none of which have a mechanical bug category, he says.
While it was hard at first to be known as “the bug guy” — Libby also creates other works using re-purposed materials — he says he’s come not only to accept that label, but to see it as a blessing.
“Now I see Insect Lab as a foundation to get my other body of work out there,” Libby says.
That other body of work includes a map made from used coffee filters, a sandcastle sculpted from sandpaper, a mosaic from one of Libby’s old desk calendars and dinosaur sculptures made from old Bibles.
Libby has found another passion: working with children.
“I love going to schools and using my art to tickle their imaginations,” he says. “I could make T-shirts and mugs using my images, but those aren’t very noble things to attach those images to. So I prefer educational properties — putting something in front of kids that can inspire and entertain them. It feels better than a T-shirt.”
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