SALT LAKE CITY — Google “cicada ribs,” and at the top of the search results, you’ll likely find Nicole Parish. That’s because no one is more enthusiastic about the insect, its physical feats or insects as a whole, than this Utah artist. And that’s in part due, she says, to the fact that she has autism.
The story begins years ago when Parish and her brother, Davin, were kids looking for bugs in the backyard.
“We raised a lot of praying mantises…We would let the praying mantises, like, roam and explore our bedroom,” she says…