A harvest moon. A dying sun. A story gone.

This artwork is full of contrasts: harsh: peaceful, sun:moon, cool:warm, butterflies:moths, life:death.

In the summer nights, the moths crowd around any outdoor light, unaware of their imminent destruction.  My moths were once butterflies. They are the negative space created when I cut butterflies out of stamps.  I backed the stamp exteriors with a white-on-white etching of my writing in four directions and cut out the negative space of the once butterflies.  These moths each have a little story from my life etched on their wings.

The center of this artwork is a tea-tie-dyed piece of shimmery velvet that looked like an unidentifiable meaty slab when it dried.  It also looked like a dying sun and a harvest moon. Its rays shine in a sun/moon/hot/cool way and the butterfly-moths are drawn to the heat and the light.  I have heard, though I am afraid to research it, that angelic butterflies ironically love rotting flesh.

For these reasons, I have decided that these are butterflies crowding around a fleshy dying sun.  They are also moths, drawn to the light of the moon, but also any light that will destroy them.  To be honest, I find the ideas behind this artwork a little bit off.  However, as an artwork, it is not sinister to look at, and is even quite easy on the eyes, it is a lot about death.   However, as butterflies and moths will attest to, the things that you are attracted to, are not always the most delightful and are sometimes destructive.    In my opinion, the glory of nature always outweighs the horror.