When University of California, Davis forensic entomologist and doctoral student Rebecca O'Flaherty teaches art workshops, she doesn't bring brushes, palette knives or color shapers.
She doesn't bring easels or canvas, either.
She brings white copier paper, forceps, and cups filled with non-toxic, water-based paint.
And, oh, yes, she brings maggots.
Maggots? O'Flaherty and her students paint with maggots. Live maggots. Maggots from the blowflies that she rears for her forensic research.
With specially designed larval forceps, they dip the squirming larvae in non-toxic, water-based paint, position them on paper, and watch them crawl, creating color trails. Voila! Maggot Art, the educational teaching curriculum she coined and trademarked after launching the program in 2001 at the University of Hawaii.
O'Flaherty teaches Maggot Art to generate interest and respect for an entomological wonder that's more associated with roadkills and goosebump chills than art thrills. Since 2001, she has taught thousands of students, ranging from kindergarteners to college students to law enforcement professionals. Her program at the annual UC Davis Picnic Day draws more than 2000 participants. Thousands of others see her work, "Ancient Offering," commissioned by the TV show, CSI, and hanging on the permanent set in Gil Grissom's office.
"This is an extremely interesting and innovative idea that combines very basic biology with art in a form that people can readily access and understand," said UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey and her major professor. "It provides an entre into the biology and development of insects that people can really appreciate and understand. It was a stroke of genius."
Some art critics compare the abstract lines of Maggot Art to the work of American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. Some lines are straight and simplistic; others, curved and crisscrossed. The public can view both styles at her Maggot Art show at the Capital Athletic Club, 1515 8th St., Sacramento, open now through March. The show includes the work of her UC colleagues Brandi Schmitt and Charlotte Wacker, contributing artists.
"I love my work and being able to share my love with so many people has truly been a joy," said O'Flaherty, who wants to become an entomology professor. "I tend to target young elementary students, second and third graders, because I find that at that age, most children are enthusiastic, uninhibited and extremely open to new ideas. They haven't developed aversions to insects, and we're able to instill in them an appreciation for and interest in all organisms, no matter how disgusting those organisms may be perceived to be."
"The beauty of the Maggot Art program," she said, "is its ability to give hands-on, non-threatening experience with an insect that most people fear or loathe."
Rebecca O'Flaherty, then Rebecca Bullard, began teaching Maggot Art workshops in 2001 while enrolled in a University of Hawaii entomology graduate program and rearing blowflies. Her student entomology club wanted a community outreach program to teach others about the fascinating world of insects. O'Flaherty's observation that maggot leave trails across decaying flesh sparked an idea: Why not combine an entomology topic with hands-on art?
Her first Maggot Art workshop, held in the summer of 2001 at the Hawaii State Farm Fair, expanded into a series of programs in elementary schools and science centers in Hawaii and California. She began offering the program at the UC Davis Picnic Day in 2003, and it's now a fixture.
"Most people are open-minded," O'Flaherty said. "The kids are excited and the parents become enthusiastic when the kids are so excited. We've had only about five children at Picnic Day refuse at first to participate, but the more they watched, the more they wanted to paint, and they usually did. Most children are so transfixed that a parent has to drag them away."
Some adults find maggots revolting. "A few parents have pulled their children away with a "Eeew!" and "Don't touch that!" she said. "One school principal cancelled my demonstration prior to my arrival when she found out about the subject, stating that she felt it was an inappropriate activity for children."
O'Flaherty keeps her workshops age-appropriate. With elementary students, she'll discuss the four development stages of the blowfly (egg, larva, pupa and adult) and ask "Have any of you ever seen maggots?" and "What are maggots good for?" After eliciting answers, she explains that "they're good for cleaning up the environment, helping doctors by eating dead tissue to keep wounds from being infected, and helping police officers solve crimes."
She explains how they breathe (“Maggots are equipped with anterior and posterior spiracles. The posterior spiracles are the two dark spots at the posterior end, which allow them to breathe while their heads are buried into food�) and how they eat (“Maggots have mouthhooks and pre-oral digestion. The mouthhooks are used to tear food. Pre-oral digestion involves enzymes that are spit into the food and slurped back in once they have aided in liquefying the food.�) She demonstrates slurping, much to the children’s delight.
"I think the most comical incident happened during a demonstration at the Explorit Science Center in Davis. One girl was so enthralled with how her maggot was moving across the paper that she dropped to the floor and attempted to slither around like a maggot, without using her arms and legs."
Most children, she said, get very attached to their maggots. At the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology workshops last summer, some children named their maggots and asked to take them home. "I don't think your parents would want a maggot in the house," O'Flaherty replied. "Besides, we want it to complete its development stage, from larva to pupa to adult and raise another generation of maggot artists."
Some children worry that the paint will harm them. "No maggots will be harmed in the making of this painting," she tells them.
Following a workshop, O'Flaherty makes sure all the maggots are present and accounted for. "We have had many heartfelt goodbyes as the children place the maggots back into the holding container before they leave."
O'Flaherty's interest in entomology sprang from her biological studies in her native Ohio. While seeking her bachelor's degree in biology at Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, she studied aquatic insects at Ohio State University's field station on Lake Erie. Later she joined the California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a fish biologist, collecting salmon carcasses on the Sacramento River. Her interest in the stages of decay and insects associated with salmon carcasses prompted her to enroll at Chico State to obtain her master's degree in biological sciences and a certificate in forensic identification.
"Forensic entomologists assist criminal investigators in determining the time of death; they collect, identify and categorize maggots as to the stage of development. Combining our knowledge of insect growth with local weather station temperature data, we are able to generate an estimate of how long insects have been associated with the remains."
"While at Chico State, I interned at the Chico Police Department and the Butte County Sheriff's Office. I was fortunate enough to be allowed at many different crime scenes, regardless of whether insects played a role." She remembers rappelling down a steep cliff into the Butte Creek Canyon to collect insects from a body.
As a certified instructor in forensic entomology, O'Flaherty consults with law enforcement officials in Northern California and teaches criminal investigators how to recognize and collect insects from crime scenes. At her lab space at the Bee Biology facility, she rears blowflies and studies the behavior of first instar maggots, particularly their responses to olfactory cues. "I rear flies in large numbers for my research and over the years, I have come to love their writhing offspring."
O'Flaherty conducts Maggot Art workshops for criminal investigation and forensic identification classes in Sacramento. "I find that it is a good icebreaker activity and helps police officers and crime scene investigators get over their aversion to handling maggots, something that they will be doing frequently at crime scenes. The activity usually begins with some measure of skepticism or disdain, but the maggots are quick to win over the critics."
UC Davis entomology professor Diane Ullman traditionally invites O'Flaherty and her Maggot Art program to her classes. Like their younger counterparts, the college students delight in creating Maggot Art, suitable for framing and always a conversation piece.
O'Flaherty posts such Maggot Art as "Dolphins at Sunset," Spanish Dancer" and "Grandpa Needs a Shave" on her educational Web site at http://www.maggotart.com. Australia's Mongo Thingo spotlighted the program, as did a South African-based magazine, Artist's Platform. She's displayed Maggot Art at art galleries since her first show in Davis in April 2004.
Contributing artists Charlotte Wacker and Brandi Schmitt are O'Flaherty's friends and colleagues. Schmitt, who works in the UC Office of the President, Oakland, is the systemwide director for all of the UC Willed Body Programs, and Wacker directs the UC Davis Medical School's Donated Body Program, Sacramento. Some of their work is posted on the Maggot Art Web site.
O'Flaherty said she plans to receive her doctorate in entomology in June. Her dissertation project: "Determinants of Maggot Aggregation Behavior in Carrion."
And what's the best way for people to get over their disgust for maggots? "By participating in Maggot Art, of course."
Editor’s Note: The opening celebration of the two-month exhibit of Maggot Art at the Capital Athletic Club, 1515 8th St., Sacramento, will be from 6:30 to 9 p.m., Friday, Jan. 19 and is open to the public. The Maggot Art will be on display through March. The paintings can be viewed any time at the club from January through March. Photos of her work, including the painting commissioned by CSI, are at http://www.ucmrp.ucdavis.edu/news/maggotart.html