In
some cultures the butterfly represents rebirth;
and after undergoing several epiphanies in my
own life, my desire to become an artist was also
being reborn. I liked the idea of a butterfly
with it's vulnerable beauty captured inside the
bounds of a predator much stronger than itself.
I thought the image reflects how often, simple
beauty in our everyday existence is brutally manipulated
by harsh and ugly elements surrounding it.
The
dyed paper was also used as a "skin"
with my lizard series. After each lizard was hardened,
sanded and primed with various colors, they were
covered with dime to quarter size pieces of dyed
paper, each hand torn and fitted to create a multitude
of hues and shapes on each lizard. I wasn't trying
to render any certain kind of species, but to
give them the human characteristic of attempting
to understand the surrounding environment. My
personal favorite is "Same Souls, Separate
Ways", which represents losing touch with
good friends with the passing of time, perhaps
as inevitable as the tides of change that consume
us. The lizards are seated inside a hand-made
frame with a three inch profile to protect them
from being damaged from my own clumsiness as well
as any other onlooker as graceful as myself.
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