Portfolio > Virtual Exhibition, "Messages In Threads and Wings"

Pipevine Swallowtail and Hackberry Emperor Butterfly, Collective Memory Protector Apron, Detail
Pipevine Swallowtail and Hackberry Emperor Butterfly, Collective Memory Protector Apron, Detail
Silk organza; marbled by the artist, walnut fabric; dyed by the artist, appliqué, machine stitching, embroidery, archival digital prints on fabric and paper, Hackberry Emperor and Swallowtail Butterflies, mica, digital prints of found photographs
24" x 33"
2020

Through walking outdoors daily, over the years, I have found many butterflies whose life cycles have been completed. The Hackberry Emperor and Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies are those that I find most often. I also collect vintage photographs of anonymous people from long ago, found in antique stores and the flea market near my home. Incorporating the butterflies and photographs into this apron was a meditation on impermanence, a reverie of unknown ancestors, and our deep and abiding human connection to one another and to the creatures with whom we share the earth. Within it’s transparent pockets, the apron carries the butterflies as enduring symbols of transformation, rebirth, and renewal.
I drafted the pattern for this apron based on an apron that belonged to my grandmother. The colors for the marbled fabric were inspired by the wings of the Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly.