The It is the chrysalis, the You the butterfly. Only it is not always as if these states took turns so neatly; often it is an intricately entangled series that is tortuously dual.
The It-world hangs together in space and time.
The You-world does not hang together in space and time.
The individual You must become an It when the event of relation has run its course.
The individual It can become a You by entering into the event of relation.¹

I make paintings of moths, ancient beings who, ensnared by the evolution of the first flowers some 130 million years ago branched into a species that obsesses over and serves flowers – butterflies. Their obsession bleeds into our own - we are preoccupied with these brilliantly-colored flappy things, our ancient ancestors’ first exposure to vibrant color. Deep in my DNA is a love for these creatures, themselves both as a life and as a symbol. A desire to be close to them, not a desire to own them, fuels fascination and intrigue that remains endlessly familiar yet unknowable.²

The mysteries of mimicry had a special attraction for me. Its phenomena showed an artistic perfection usually associated with man-wrought things. Such was the imitation of oozing poison by bubble-like macules on a wing (complete with pseudo-refraction) or by glossy yellow knobs on a chrysalis (“Don’t eat me—I have already been squashed, sampled, and rejected”). When a certain moth resembled a certain wasp in shape and color, it also walked and moved its antennae in a waspish, unmothlike manner. When a butterfly had to look like a leaf, not only were all the details of a leaf beautifully rendered but markings mimicking grub-bored holes were generously thrown in. … I discovered in nature the nonutilitarian delights that I sought in art. Both were a form of magic, both were a game of intricate enchantment and deception.⁶

1. Martin Buber, I And Thou (Bureau of Public Secrets).

2. In conversation with the artist.

3. Berlo, Janet C. "The Warrior and the Butterfly: Central Mexican Ideologies of Sacred Warfare and Teotihuacan Iconography." In Text and Image in Pre-Columbian Art, edited by Janet C. Berlo. (Oxford University Press, 1983).

4. Kay Etheridge, Maria Sibylla Merian and the Metamorphosis of Natural History (Amsterdam, Ne, 2011).

5. Baden-Powell of Gilwell, The Adventures of a Spy (London: C.A. Pearson, 1936).

6. Vladimir Nabokov, Butterflies, The New Yorker, June 5, 1948.

7. Ibid.