INSECT FRIENDS: Princeton Academy first grade boys studied insects in their class, and then created their own inventive critters out of snippets of paper. Pictured here is a colorful Stag Beetle by Jack Dowling.

D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Olivia Rainbow Gallery presents Our Insect Friends, a paper-collage artwork by Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart first-graders, through September 8. 

Crafted from vivid papers, these collages were created by first-grade boys at Princeton Academy, under the tutelage of K-3 art teacher Maggie Rose. “As a Sacred Heart school, we adhere to five specific life goals and criteria,” says Ms. Rose. “‘Think, imagine and create’ is one of these goals. The insect images were created in connection with classroom study of insects. Princeton Academy has a generous wooded campus conducive to nature study.”

A walking-stick chewing grass; a flour beetle in a mosaic robe; a dragonfly with Southwestern flair. Perhaps the most unexpected is the earwig, sporting a crimson garment and golden leggings. The students have carefully studied their insects, while encouraged to be original in interpretation.

The Olivia Rainbow Gallery was founded and is funded in memory of Chris and Leslie Kuenne’s daughter Olivia, who cared deeply about nature. It is located at the D&R Greenway Land Trust Johnson Education Center, One Preservation Place in Princeton. The gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, except holidays. For more information call (609) 924-4646 or visit www.drgreenway.org.