Butterfly Mythology and Fast Friday Fabric Challenge

I am the host this week for Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. Because I am interested in insects, butterflies in particular, and mythology of insects I chose Butterfly Mythology as my challenge. I have created several butterfly quilts in my series Fabricating Nature but the latest have been associated with mythology.

The Circle of Life
30" x 40"

The circle is representative of life's never ending cycle (birth, death, rebirth). The butterfly lays its eggs on a plant that nourishes the egg. The caterpillar eats and grows, it then turns into a chrysalis and emerges as a beautiful butterfly. It's sole purpose is to breed and start the cycle/circle all over. 

While I did not chose to represent this in a circular form it is none the less representative of the circle of life. 

The Return of the Monarch
30.5" x 39"

The local people of Angangueo, Mexico have long believed that monarchs are the returning spirits of their deceased relatives, mysteriously arriving at the same time each year, coinciding with the Day of the Dead. Aztec tradition holds that the souls of the departed will return as hummingbirds and butterflies. This link between myth and the monarchs’ annual return spans centuries.

Ravishing
24" x 33"


You may notice a resemblance between the first panel in The Circle of Life and Ravishing. I actually used the same photograph to create both of these pieces. The technique is different which makes for a very different looking piece. I used the caterpillar for the Spice Bush Swallowtail in this piece while I used the Monarch caterpillar for The Circle of Life.

This piece is not related to a myth. 

Mama's Butterflies

 Several years ago when I went to an AQS show in Paducah, I found this piece of marbled fabric. I immediately saw a tree and actually willed a woman who was looking at the fabric to put it down. As soon as she did, I grabbed it. It took me a while to decide what to do with this piece but I finally decided to create this piece titled Mama's Butterflies. My Mother was quite accomplished in art of crochet.  She knew of my love of butterflies so she found a pattern and created quite a few. She gave me about ten but when she passed away I found more in her crochet left overs. This was my way to honor her work combined with mine.  

Flowerfly 

31" x 42"

Flowerfly is one of my older pieces and the first time I created a butterfly in my work. The forward wings are loose and have wire sewn into the edges so that the wings can actually be moved a bit. The spots on the wings are painted with paint sticks.

It is not related to a myth.

Blue Atlas
62" x 50" 

Blue Atlas is quite a large piece and is hand quilted with hand-dyed pearl cotton. The spots or decorations on the wings are fussy cut and fused to the wings. This seems to be a popular piece of mine and I think it might be the impact of the beautiful blue/purple hand-dyed fabric on the black background.

It is not associated with a myth.

 I wish that I had been able to find more examples of butterfly art in mythology on the internet. I know they're out there as I found many examples in the book The Spirit of Butterfies: myth, magic and art, by Maraleen Manos-Jones.  I hope the participants of Fast Friday Fabric Challenge find this to be an interesting challenge. Good luck?

This post is linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

FFFC

I decided that the piece I posted yesterday needed to be cropped. To much interference and other stuff to look at when I wanted attention to be on the face.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge Feb.

The challenge for FFFC this month is Let's Play! Kathy Lichtendahl was the hostess. The following tells about the challenge.

This month I am asking everyone to reach way back in their psyche to tap the
memories of childhood. The idea is to create a piece of artwork that recalls
your early days - to you at least - and possibly to the viewer as well. The
subject can be something or someplace concrete that brings back memories of
being a child or it can be a more abstract creation based on a recalled
smell or sound or fleeting impression.

The finished piece may be depicted in a childlike manner or it may be
channeled through the adult you that exists today. Try not to over think the
process. The goal is to create a design based on a feeling of being a small
person at that certain place and time in your life.

Many artists spend their entire careers trying to re-create the sense of
wonder and newness experienced as a child. Some well known examples are the
following:

Please enlarge this photo so that you can see the face well.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this challenge and thinking I didn't have time to get it done. I have been learning so much about PhotoShop Elements and am having such a good time that I decided I would see if I could get one my ideas to work in PhotoShop Elements.

One of my most vivid memories of my childhood was laying in the yard under a tree and looking for faces in the clouds.

I have quite a large stash of sky photos so I looked in that folder and decided on the photo above.

I loved the light that was shining behind the cloud, it just glowed.

The next photo I looked for was a face that really spoke to me. This is a photo I took of my granddaughter, Ellington. It was Christmas and she had gotten this Lite-Brite as a gift. She decided that she wanted to make a self-portrait. We turned the lights off so that she had a side light. I thought this turned out beautifully. I've always loved the way her eyes look in this photo.

I dropped-out the background and most of her hair. After I placed the face in the sky photo I decided it needed a bit more adjusting so I dropped out a bit more of the left side of her face.

In PSE you can move the image around, so I auditioned the face until I found just the right placement. I printed the results on an 11 x 14 piece of cotton sateen. Quilting will have to come later.

All comments are welcome