Shells

"Here, in these shells, we see the housing of the life of the sea. It is the housing of a lower order of life, but it is a housing with exactly what we lack: inspired form. In this collection of houses of hundreds of small beings, who themselves built these houses, we see a quality which we call invention.  The beauty of their variation is never finished. ... Certainly Divinity is manifest here in these shells in their humble form of life."  Frank Lloyd Wright*

In the lower floor of Saint Anne's Bascilica, you'll find wall tiles of fossilized shells.  The capital of each small column that lines the outer walls and aisles before the altar displays mosaics with a species of either plant, or animal.  Patterns in nature are used throughout the grotto-like downstairs: on the floors, on the walls, or on the ceiling. A lifetime could be spent there in study.

Thrown into the wild without tools or knowledge, my feeble abode would consist of sticks, twigs, and clay.  Contemplate a shell's home--its complexity, form, and aesthetics--and you're quickly humbled.

*Louise Allderdice Travers: The Romance of Shells in Nature and Art published by Avenel Books