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Over the last five years, I have been involved in a Monarch Butterfly raising, tagging and release program. The program called Magical Migrating Monarchs, was started by my sister, Judith Levicoff, and is designed to introduce people to the wonders and special qualities of Monarch Butterflies and at the same time show them how integral to our own health and well being all creatures large and small are.
As a working fine artist, my role for the program was to provide exciting, realistically accurate renderings of Monarchs, host plants which sustain the Monarchs and their larva, and also the various stages of Monarch metamorphosis. The work took me far afield. I traveled to the Mountains of Central Mexico, to observe the Monarch over-wintering sites of Michoacan. I visited Pacific Grove, on California's north central coast, which hosts hundreds of thousands of Monarchs from late October to March. I also spent the summer months raising Monarchs from eggs found during field trips to local wildflower meadows both in and around the Philadelphia area, where I live.
Prior to this project, my main artistic work had been painting the American landscape, but during these journeys to the Butterfly sites, my vision began to change dramatically. The thousands of Monarchs in California and millions in Mexico, dominate the landscape. Their colors fill every nook and cranny of the environment. The very air vibrates with their brilliance and gentle sounds and the ground pulsates with shimmering Monarch wings. Sunlight, air and color pervade and the feeling of life celebrating itself is everywhere. My butterfly drawings began to reflect this sense of celebration rather than the instructional aspect of the visuals for the Magical Migrating Monarch program. I remembered butterfly collecting that I'd done as a child and reached back to those early times of wonder. The butterflies and my excitement about them was still all there. I began to draw from those memories. These new butterflies needed their own world, so I created a "Sunlit Circle of Life" for them to soar in. The early butterflies were part of the surface of the paper. I felt that butterflies needed to be free, to fly, so I cut them out and raised them up into the air. The environment that I'd created also needed its own space and I raised that above the constraints of the background. Each butterflies that I work on represents the idealization of its species. I take a number of photographs and specimens of the species and develop an absolutely symmetrical butterfly. I use the and common name below it. So far, scientists have discovered about 20,000 species of butterflies and at least another 150,000 moths. As I explore this vast array of nature's bounty I'm constantly impressed by the power, detail, and majesty of these tiny creatures.
So far, I've tried to choose butterflies that have significant differences from each other. Wing, body shape, and color are the most obvious distinguishing factors, but as I get more knowledgeable, I'm discovering more and more nuances. Antennae, compound eyes, wing tails, and hair are examples of other fascinating features. I feel that I have just begun a journey that will last well beyond my ability to complete. But isn't the process of getting there the real joy of travel?
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