Of Compost, Molecules And Insects, Art Is Born.

The word organic means different things to different people. To the gardener it means compost heaps. To the chemist it means carbon compounds. To the artist Fabian Pena, it means American cockroaches, those chunky nocturnal charmers often seen skittering around drainpipes or on the street. ''I have collected cockroaches from many different places,'' Mr. Pena said. ''From Cuba, Mexico, Miami, Houston, everywhere I travel.'' He kills the cockroaches with a spray, pops them into a jar, takes them back to his studio in Florida, and then puts their parts to work in his art. He glues their legs together into long, lacy cylinders that look like giant larval casings. He arranges their wings into medically precise images of a human skull, foot bones and hand bones, all scaled to his own head and appendages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]