Natural selection is looking at you

The succession of species, their "blooming" periods and extinctions, puzzled 19th Century naturalists.  Then, Charles Darwin identified natural selection as the key mechanism of evolutionary change. In this  image, Darwin's "fancy" eyes are the eyespots on moth wings that mimic the eyes of predators, an iconic  example of change through natural selection. The bowler hat is a reference to the surrealist painter,  René Magritte, for whom it was a symbol of the bourgeois. Indeed, in the typically narrow mindset of  Darwin’s day, even hinting at procreation was not done. So it certainly marks his genius that he opened  his eyes to the vistas offered by natural selection -- despite his hat..

Natural selection is looking at you I

Natural selection is looking at you II

The image is based on a well-known photographic portrait of Charles Darwin and stylizeded renderings of  Io moth (Automeris io) and an unidentified Owl moth
Media: Acrylic spraypaint/stencil, watercolour; Dimensions: DIN A4 ;  Production date: 2012

(In my previous Blog-message, I presented the plain spay-paint version of this worrk)