Waterbug (34" x 30", casein on masonite) - Based on Mary's collection of water creatures that she kept in an aquarium one summer in the early 1960s at Yelping Hill, this waterbug personifies the beauty and fierceness that Mary saw in these insects.

"It was a venomous creature.  What happened was we caught a lot of things from the Tarn at Yelping Hill, and put them in a tank and then just sort of let them go to see who would eat who.  It was a very gruesome thing, but it was nature, and finally it ended up with a crayfish and this creature, and then this creature managed to get the crayfish.  He had a long poker thing poking like a sword, and he would suck out the juices of whoever he managed to get.  After he stabbed to death the gallant crayfish, he turned over and lay on his back and died."