Lucy Golden has been making jewelry in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for a wonderfully long time. As an avid naturalist, she feels fortunate to be able to explore her interests in her work. Whether it is mushrooms, insects, wildflowers, or birds, she draws her inspiration from the glorious array of wildlife that thrives in our midst.

“I see the world through the lens of a line from a favorite Rebecca Solnit essay, Letter to a Young Climate Activist on the First Day of the New Decade,” says Golden. “Solnit writes ‘life wants to live.’ It's such a simple explanation, but captures the common ground that all living things share, from single cell organisms to the complexity that is homo sapiens. It opens the door to just how miraculous life is…This work is a tribute to the life that surrounds us in its various forms and their stages.”

Lucy also raises native moths and mantises, and has special affection for our various insect friends. In this talk Lucy will discuss her work and influences, as well as her relationship with insects, her moth raising projects, and how moths have been used in art throughout the ages by many cultures. She will even bring some of her insect pets to meet the crowd!

Along with landscape painter Michele Johnsen, Lucy is one of the featured artists in Lifecycles, on view now through August 28 in the Gallery at WREN.