‘She Who Waits,’ an original acrylic painting copyright Susan A. Walton.

This multimedia piece featuring an arachnid familiar to many American gardeners, includes a web made from fine iridescent sewing thread embedded in the paint. The little huntress on the web is Argiope aurantia, the name meaning ‘gilded silver-face,’ and they are a widespread common garden spider in the Americas, and even in Hawaii. One of their trademarks is the zigzag design called the stabilatum which they weave into their beautiful, meticulously constructed webs.

When disturbed, they may violently vibrate their web, but mostly they are peaceful helpers in the garden. If captured they may be forced to bite, but usually they will slip away out of the web, avoiding trouble.

I have never been bitten even after accidentally face-planting in webs while mowing, they just scramble away to safety. When going back the following day, I find the web rebuilt in the same location - only several feet higher- so that it will not be in my way again. This demonstrates that they have a capacity for learning and problem-solving to accommodate the traffic situation in their immediate neighborhood.

This one has chosen to build its web in a Rough-Leaved Dogwood, a small and pretty native tree of the Midwest known for its lovely white berries. I spotted this one while on a nature walk with a dear friend, Rick, north of St. Louis,Missouri. He had taken me to his favorite paw paw patch, but we stopped to visit a fine tall-grass prairie that day, and along the edges of the prairie on one side were masses of these beautiful rough-leaved dogwoods bearing clusters of beautiful white berries. I noticed the spider tucked back in between two of the trees and thought of how I would try to render the delicate, iridescent silk of her web with a clumsy paintbrush and paint later, back in my studio.

After many tries with a brush that proved unsatisfactory, I recalled a spool of iridescent thread in my sewing cabinet left over from making a baby quilt for a nephew. Perfect!