After a many month process of making this piece come to life, "Butterfly Bloom" was installed at the May 2016 Caribbean Color Art Show held at Yacht Haven Grande on St Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands.
The actual installation took 15 hours, but the creation of the 300 butterflies used in the piece took many many more. In the fall of 2015 in the Virgin Islands (following a 6 month drought) there was an extraordinary "bloom" of butterflies here. For weeks they filled the air everywhere. This was my inspiration for the piece. Many of the 1000's of butterflies all around the Island were yellow, so when I was brainstorming for ideas for the Caribbean Color "Life in Yellow" show they were an obvious choice the my subject matter of my sculpture. I decided to include 20 different types of yellow butterflies from around the world.
I drew them in pen and ink and then copied them onto the front and back sides of white card stock paper.
I then hand-colored and painted each butterfly, cut them out, and coated them with modge podge to stiffen the paper.
They were then glued to wires and thumb tacks during the installation process.
There was a small fan helping them move on their wires.
The piece was very popular on opening night and for the duration of the show. People loved to pose inside the room with the butterflies.
This was me at the opening night reception.
We sold some individual wire pieces, but a large part of the piece was purchased to be installed in a lucky young girl's bedroom.
This was the final day of the exhibition. I am quite pleased with how my original concept so closely matched the final product. The Caribbean Colour Art Show always seems to bring out the best in my 3-dimensional work.
