Dragonflies as Art - Ethical?

[Julles]

I was on a home tour in a VERY ritzy part of town yesterday.  One home had, as a piece of art, a dozen or so damselflies, dead, lined up and attached to a backing, and then framed under glass.

It was mighty pretty.  But... I just find something a bit garish about having once-live creatures around the house as casual art.  Bad Karma, seems to me. 

Especially since you would have to figure that those damselflies were captured and killed, to make the piece of art.  You don't just find 12 perfect specimens of the same type, size, color, etc., bug lying around dead on the ground in nature.  Someone had to have collected and killed them.

[karen J]

My brother used to do that with butterflies. He would use a pin to mount them into a shadow-box type of frame with a red velour background. Had them hanging in his room.

He also used to follow bees around with a small can of WD40. One drop of the stuff would immobilize a bee. He also brought home black widow spiders as a Christmas gift to me and I felt they weren't getting enough air... so they got loose in the house.

I was so traumatized....

[Esther]

I hear ya Julles and don't think I'd want to do that. But some people collect stuff like that for the fun of it. In biology class years ago, we had to make a bug collection and mount the stuff for display. My grandparents had a honeysuckle bush so I'd catch several bees and trade them for other bugs I didn't have. I'm glad they don't do that any more in school. I don't mind killing a bug once in a while like when hornets try to nest in the pool shed or grill. Also when there's spidersor flies in the house, I won't let them live.

[Desertponder]

I'm with you on this one. I don't like dead things hanging on the walls. I suppose it would be o.k. if they had all been found dead but I just don't agree with killing things to hang on the wall. I would much rather see them alive.

[Sunbeam56]

I don't really see it as an ethics issue.   

Bugs in boxes don't last very long. They disintegrate as they mummify.
And, I think it is natural to want something you think is beautiful up close.
We can keep fish in aquariums.
It would be hard to keep dragonflies in the house. Hard to feed - can't imagine catching enough gnats and mosquitoes to keep them healthy.

I have a BEEG dragonfly - its not real, its an oil painting. And not a very good one - but I like it.
And I have a fake Tiffany lamp with glass dragonflies on it. 

I guess, I just think its a waste of effort. If you want the beauty of bugs to last - you are better off with some durable media.

[Jerry]

Then there is always a "Jackalope"

[Johns]

Good Grief, Julles, Theyre BUGS!  My mother once had the most beautful necklace that contained butterfly wings.  By the way, do you wear fashionable leather shoes?  Gee, weren't they once the skin of a living animal??  To each his own, but remember it is only due to present day technology that we have the leeway to view life the way may of us do, a way that would have been very hard to do for our grandparents and especially our great grandparents.

Sunbeam, I have mounted insects that were my son's middle school project that are still in good shape and he is 38.  The secret is an airtight mounting box with moth crystals inside to keep the tiny mites from destroying the specimens. 

[Indiana Karen]

Uh-oh  I guess I'm guilty.
Several years ago my son got me a shadowbox with beautifully mounted butterflies in it. He was around 18 years old and thought he had found the perfect gift.  It helps that the butterflies are not native to this area.........probably South America.....they are a brilliant blue and turquoise.  They were kinda pricey and I get a lot of comments on them.

Karen

[jclements]

I do think those human body exhibits can be unethical. Some of the bodies were not acquied with 100% disclosure of the exact use.

[karen J]

I do think those human body exhibits can be unethical. Some of the bodies were not acquied with 100% disclosure of the exact use.

Yes. Have you ever gone to a medical museum? Fascinating stuff... all kinds of weird specimens. What's also disturbing is all of the strange medical devices that no self respecting doctor would ever even imagine using on a patient today

[Esther]

You mean like leaches?

[jclements]

I have been to a few and saw the strangest stuff in one in Russia. It's probably not appropriate to discuss here...

[Julles]

Well, as a licensed funeral director, you don't even want to THINK ABOUT what we dealt with in Mortuary School.   

[Mikey]

This turn in the discussion reminds me something funny that I saw many years ago as a young cop.  Some of you may not find this funny but cops/nurses/doctors/fire fighters etc. tend to have a strange sense of humor so if you don't have that humor then don't be offended by continuing to read......

We were dispatched to a residence to take a report of a "dead body".  Such dispatches are fairly common.  The deceased was an elderly man and death appeared to be natural causes.  In our county, if the death appears to be natural and the treating physician had seen the victim within the last ten days and was willing to sign the death certificate then there would be no need for a Coroner's investigation/autopsy and the body could be immediately released to a mortuary.  Such was the case here and two rather frail looking elderly men from the mortuary dressed in black suits soon arrived to pick up the body.  They placed the deceased onto their gurney and while going down the front steps of the house into the front yard they lost control of the gurney and it started to tip over.  One of the men moved to the side of the gurney and in so doing he himself lost his balance and the gurney with the deceased toppled over on top of the man from the mortuary.  Here was this poor mortuary guy lying flat on his back in some ivy, pinned down by some dead guy that they had neglected to strap down to the gurney. 

I didn't laugh openly but inside I was roaring with laughter. 

[Kittyzee]

Mikey:     I am a firefighter and also grew up at the fire department since my dad was a firefighter.  A lot of the reason our sense of humor is 'twisted' IMHO, is that it is a way to relieve stress.  Cops and FF's see and deal with things that the average person doesn't.  Laughter is a way of de-compression and trying to rid oneself of horrific accident/fire scenes.  Ethical or unethical--it works.