“Monarch Munch” (Copyright Susan Brubaker Knapp 2026)
White fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton batting, interfacing, backing fabric. Wholecloth painted, free-motion machine quilted.
In April, I participated in an event hosted annually by my friend and realtor Natalie Marrone to gather food and raise money for PORCH, a local organization that fights hunger in this area. A naturalist named John Connors was there with several monarch caterpillars on milkweed, and I took photos on which this piece is based.
“Milkweed is the common name for many plants in the genus Asclepias. It is an herbaceous perennial, recognizable by its broad opposite leaves, colorful flower clusters, or seed pods filled with silk that carries its wind-dispersed seeds. Monarch butterflies only lay eggs on milkweed and monarch caterpillars only feed on milkweed leaves. The key to this specialized relationship is found in the milky latex produced by the plant, which contains compounds called cardiac glycosides that are poisonous to most other animals. The monarch butterfly has developed resistance to this toxin, giving caterpillars a strong chemical defense against predators. In response, milkweed is trending toward faster regrowth following monarch caterpillar activity rather than increased toxicity. This is an example of coevolution, the process of living things influencing one another over thousands or millions of years.”
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/milkweed-and-monarchs.htm
Lots of information about my wholecloth painting technique is in this blog post: https://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/2014/01/faqs-wholecloth-painting.html
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