Illilepas damrowi

​Selected Mixed Media / Collages 2014 -2018

These pieces were recently on view in an exhibition called All This Land at the Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. You can read the wall text and captions for the work in the show's digital catalog and view the installation on the Exhibition Views page.
                    The Beginnings of All Things are Small -
           Hand-ground watercolor and raw mineral pigment
           rub on museum board; Cicero quotation in Latin.
​                  15.5 x 15.25 in
              I Own Nothing (Thoreau Practices His Autograph) – 
              Hand-drawn writing paper, antique wallpaper,
              quill-penned sepia ink, and fifty-seven and a
              half forged signatures.
​                   15.25 x 11.25 in.     
                     Ochre Stratum – 
Mineral pigments (fossil strata of Utah)
​and found text (index of North American  Carboniferous brachiopod literature) on  museum board.      20.75 x 15.25 in. 
                  A Stratum of Flint –
Lead oxide slurry and rust, with crushed  freshwater mussel shells, and hand-        painted papers on museum board.   
​      20.5 x 17.25 in. 
            Shadow Stratum (Solitude) – 
     Coal dust, soot, sepia and white ink
     on museum board (transcript from
     Thoreau’s Walden).
​          20.75 x 14.5 in. 
                                                Constellation 1 – 
                       Coal dust, crushed freshwater mussel shells,
                          zinc-white pigment, and gum arabic on
                          museum board. 20.75 x 14.5 in. 
                              Constellation 2 – 
       Coal dust, crushed freshwater mussel shells,
        zinc-white pigment, and gum arabic on
        museum board. 20.75 x 14.5 in
                                                                                             Actual Size -
                                                         Hand-painted papers, with five-gallon bucket silhouette
                                                         made of pure cadmium orange pigment, on museum board.
                                                               22.5 x 22.5 in. 
                                                    Numbers, Near and Far 1 - 
                                                Collage of hand-painted and                                                   abraded papers on museum board.                                                         17.5 x 12.5 in. 
        Numbers, Near and Far 2 - 
     Collage of hand-painted and                                                    abraded papers on museum board.                                                         17.5 x 12.5 in. 
                  Coal Drawing 1 – 
Ground coal and freshwater mussel shells in gum arabic, zinc white, on soot-stained paper. 21.5 x 15.25 in. 
                   Coal Drawing 2 – 
Ground coal, rust, and freshwater mussel shells in gum arabic, zinc white, on soot-stained paper. ​21.5 x 15.25 in. 
                  Coal Drawing 3 – 
 Ground coal, rust, and freshwater mussel shells in gum arabic, zinc white, on soot-stained paper. ​21.5 x 15.25 in. 
                                 Horizons (Boundaries) 1 -
          Found fossiliferous pigments (from Colorado and                      Arizona) on incised and stained museum board. 
​            22.25 x 22.25 in. 
                                 Horizons (Boundaries) 2 – 
         Found fossiliferous pigments (from Utah and Kansas)
         on incised and stained museum board.
            22.25 x 22.25 in. 
                                         Forty Leaves and Droplets – 
                              Hand-ground watercolor with an unknown
                              Czech artist’s diary text, on museum board.
​                                    20.75 x 14.25 in. 
                                  Blue – 
             Zinc-white gouache and hand-
              rubbed pigment on paper, mounted
​              on museum board. 17.5 x 12.5 in.