WITHSome of nature's most destructive forces are beautiful: the lionfish that floats through the water like a jeweled fan, the python that glides through the grass with muscular grace, the carp that glitters silver as it leaps from the river.
These creatures can destroy entire ecosystems.
They are invasive species. Transported across oceans by global trade, released through human carelessness, or deliberately introduced by industry, they breed in habitats that are not prepared for them. They then gobble up resources and displace existing animals. Research shows Lionfish can reduce native reef fish populations by nearly 80 percent in a matter of weeks. Burmese pythons in Florida are responsible for decimating some small mammal populations by more than 90 percent. The carp fill the waterways so thickly that boats have a hard time getting past. These losses spread outward: food webs collapse and ecosystems suffocate. Conservative estimates suggest that invasive species are now cost the world economy hundreds of billions of dollars annually And promote more than half of all recorded extinctions.
“Beauty borders on menace.”
But one artist is turning these animals into works of art to make the dangers more visible. Laura Shape takes the skins of invasive species that are typically discarded after being captured or hunted and uses them as raw material for shimmering, textured paintings. The form works with a group called ENSURE REGRESSIONwhich processes hides into leather and other flexible materials such as fabrics and decorative panels. Several Shape pieces are currently featured in Under the seavirtual show supported by UNESCO. She also strives to place her work in public spaces such as hotels, airports and hospitals in regions affected by environmental abuses, so that the art lives where the problem is most pressing.
“The material is the message,” Shape says. She makes lionfish skins shine like stained glass and weaves python skins into sculptures that gurgle like rivers. “When I use invasive fish skin or python skin, I am embedding an ecosystem into a work of art. They cannot be separated.” Her point of view is not metaphorical, but ecological. These materials are literally parts of the problem, transformed into forms that require attention.
And attention matters. Research in conservation psychology shows that emotional connection and beauty can inspire environmental action more effectively than data alone. The painting, made from lionfish skin, is eye-catching, but it also carries the memory of a predator ravaging the reefs. A sculpture made from carp skins may seem meditative, like flowing water, until the viewer remembers how carp choke rivers. Shape tells me, “I want people to feel both awe and discomfort. That's what makes it real.”
Science continues to offer the basic tools for controlling invasive species: monitoring, removal, prevention, and habitat restoration. Yet art can play a role that science alone cannot. This creates intimacy. He brings the crisis into living rooms and galleries, into the hands of collectors who now own a piece of ecological imbalance.
Some critics object that aestheticizing the invaders risks glorifying them. But the best examples of this art resist this trap. This highlights the paradox rather than erasing it. Objects are beautiful, but beauty comes with threat. They are a reminder of what happens when ecosystems lose balance and what humans can do, however imperfectly, to restore them. “Every invasive species tells two stories,” Shape says. “A story of collapse and a story of resilience. My job is to bring them together – to make people watch, and then to make them care.”
Invasive species test the resilience of the natural world and human imagination. They show how fragile the ecological balance is, how quickly beauty can lead to destruction. But they also remind us that what is broken can be reimagined. When an invader's body becomes a painting or sculpture, it is not just decoration. It is an invitation to look differently: to confront the damage we have caused and imagine a repair woven from its fibers.
More from Nautilus about invasive species:
“The Curious Odyssey of Starlings“ The Legacy of America's Most Hated Bird
“I heard the braying of a wild donkey» Towards a new understanding of invasive species
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Main image: Laura Shape
