lover of natures ODDITIES

aaron “Levi” overall

when i was younger, i dropped out of college and started living off my art. i fell in love hard with the world of plants after applying to local nurseries and horticulture has been my day job ever since. my creativity comes in, what feels like, extreme waves and thats why i love the spontaneousness of being a freelancer. iv always been a bit of a weirdo and my works defiantly express that in various subjects. the philosophy of one being unapologetically true to themselves is a huge part of my queer experience. a lot of my work reflects that as a transgender plant nerd. art is a powerful tool and i use it for my own expression, but i also hope i can share that connection with others as well. its the human way!

jpegdisco was a name i came up with that combined two interests of mine. jpeg was paying homage to how i created my first pieces of digital art in the early 2000s. my parents desktop was littered with jpeg files of wolf drawings i did in ms paint. even though i dont dare touch that file type for my work today, it gives me a lot of nostalgic joy. as for disco i feel thats pretty self explanatory. sister sledge, cheryl lynn, donna summers, chic (this could be a very long list) are artists i associate heavily with my childhood. it was music created by folks of minority communities and even considered “perverted” for its time. a theme we see heavily in human history. blackness, queerness, sexuality, and femininity, truly a genre that pioneered a lot of music we listen to today. disco, in my opinion, hosts a lot of cultural importance and im here to celebrate that.

levi’s naturalist log

  • blooming oakleaf hydrangea

  • fruiting american mulberry

  • euphorbia

  • banana slug

  • blooming northern catalpa

  • opalescent nudibranch

  • robin fledgling

    every season we have young robins hopping around the lot. sometimes they wonder inside the green house and i have to relocate them.

  • moon snail egg collar

    can you believe there are thousands of tiny little eggs compacted into that thing? they littered the ocean floor when i went tide pooling in 2022.

  • painted anemone

  • large burls on an oak

    this is an oak at my parents house. it has large burls due to, what looks like, a past injury that damaged the cambium. this burl is a whopping 20’ in circumference, wow!

  • red rock crab...i think

  • parsnip swallowtail caterpillar

  • carolina mantis oothecae

  • miss olive greenhouse manager

  • bald cypress fall foliage

  • lacewing fly eggs on a red maple

  • gall on an oak leaf

  • golden rod bloom

  • shield bug nymphs

  • two marked treehopper

  • hummingbird clearwing moth

  • daffodil blooms

  • old growth katsura

  • squid egg sack

  • bull kelp

  • common garter snake

    another animal i relocated pretty frequently at my old nursery, but such a treat when i get to!

  • old growth sycamore

  • fruiting service berry

  • robin hatchlings

    Description goes here

  • eastern redbud spring foliage

  • 380 yr old white oak

    this is the oldest tree in all of cincinnati OH. she has large hanging branches that touch down to the ground, giving her almost the shape of an octopus!

  • brood x nymphs

  • io moth

  • brood x cicada

  • brood x nymph shells

  • freshly emerged brood x cicada

  • blooming "ann" magnolia

  • salamander

  • lined chiton

  • ochre sea star

  • moon snail shell

  • defense postured garter snake

  • bull frog tadpole

  • reverted wheeping bald cypress

    this was a little bald cypress that lived in my old nursery’s display bed. i’m especially found of her because it WAS a weeping variety, but it decided to “revert”.

  • bald cypress "knees"

    can you tell i like bald cypress…they’re such a fantastic tree! they thrive naturally in wet, swampy environments. you will find that the roots closest to bodies of water will form “knees”. botanist don’t really know why but its thought to be an adaptation to help support the tree in some way.

  • monarch butterfly

  • black and yellow garden spider

  • fasciated rudbeckia

    this was such a treat to see! we got a shipment of annuals and one of the blacked eyed susans had fasciation. this is when a plants’ organs abnormally fuse, creating contorted tissue.

  • organ grape

  • fern spores

  • swamp cicada

  • carolina mantis

  • kelp crab

  • bald faced wasp nest