Maureen Estony: “I’m An Artist!”

Most of us are frightened by wasp nests.

They can be enormous. They look menacing. And they’re home to hundreds of stinging insects.

Wasp nest, by Maureen Estony’s home.

Walking in the woods near her home in Woodstock, Connecticut, Maureen Estony spotted a gigantic nest. She was fascinated.

The first frost had come, so the wasps had abandoned it permanently.

Maureen cut it down, then sliced it in half. “It was beautiful,” the 1981 Staples High School graduate recalls.

“It was like an ant farm. I could see all the different levels, where the wasps operated.”

One of Maureen Estony’s wasp nests.

The paper the nest was made of — created by wasps gathering wood fibers, chewing them, and mixing them with saliva — looked beautiful too, with a range of colors and textures.

Maureen — who operated a jam and specialty food company — played around with the wasp paper.

She made a bowl, then put it aside.

Maureen Estony

Five years ago, Maureen moved back to this area. She’d gone to Westport schools. She’d been a cheerleader and swimmer, and taught swimming at Longshore to put herself through the University of Connecticut.

She’d been a literature major. She did not consider herself an artist. She’d had some tough times — in 1985, she fell out of a barn onto pavement, and broke many bones — but living on 2 wooded acres upstate, and running her business, was fulfilling.

Back in this area, botched tendon surgery led to 3 years of near incapacitation.

Maureen had collected a number of wasp nests. She remained fascinated by the organization of the hives, and the paper that protected it.

She made more bowls. Then, using scrap metal from the Stamford dump, her art became more elaborate.

Maureen never showed it to anyone. But when her mother and friend Patty Kondub both told her that the Senior Center often displayed artwork, she brought her bowls to director Wendy Petty.

A collection of wasp nest bowls.

Last month, Maureen mounted her first show ever. It was the first time her wasp nest bowls had left her apartment.

The reaction was “better than I could have hoped for. I teared up.”

She sold a piece her first day. Near the end of the exhibit, she gave a talk to Senior Center attendees.

Wasp nest bowl: the view from above.

Her first tentative steps into the local arts community gave her courage. She called Miggs Burroughs — another native Westporter, and co-founder of the Arts Collective of Westport — who was generous with time, insights and advice.

“Westport is such an arts town,” Maureen says. “There’s original work everywhere — schools, Town Hall, the library. It’s magical.”

She’s expanded now, using hosta leaves and creating micro vases with another beautiful bit of nature: calla lilies. “They’re so curvaceous and elegant,” Maureen says.

Calla lily mini vase. 

Maureen Estony still sounds surprised to call herself an artist.

“Saying those words out loud was as profound as it was natural,” she notes. “‘I’m an artist!’ I’m claiming something I’ve never said before.”

(You can follow Maureen on Instagram: maureen_estony_art.)

(“06880” regularly spotlights the arts — and Staples High School graduates. If you enjoy coverage like this — or anything else we do — please click here to support our work. Thank you!)