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A dragonfly lives between seven and fifty-six days, so every second counts.
They can fly forwards and backwards or hover in place to catch their prey—other insects. Cultures and individuals have long appreciated images of dragonflies because of their appearance and their two sets of wings.
Dragonflies live near marshes where they find most of their food. They can often be seen flying around looking for other insects or resting on a plant that provides a platform to launch from.
Once when we were staying at St. Mary Lake on Salt Spring Island my kids brought me a perfectly intact, dead dragonfly and told me I should draw it. (I always listen to my kids.) I drew a realistic version, then created a drawing of a mechanical dragonfly constructed of metal with rivets.
Around that time, I saw a documentary in which a Chinese orchardist was pollinating plants with a feather duster because the bees that usually did this had disappeared and the gentleman was filling in for the insects.  A perfect place for mechanical insects.
Afterwards I began to explore the idea of a variety of mechanical insects, and I designed drawings, oil and acrylic paintings, soap stone carvings, card designs, and t-shirts.
I eventually wrote a book called The Red Door which was set in a post-apocalyptic world where I questioned who was the creator of all the mechanicals if the man who we thought made them was mechanical too.