Yesterday, the kids and I went to Snow Farm – a local school for artisans which features work by artists like Josh Simpson. Every year they hold a seconds sale and we have a lot of fun browsing the pottery, blown glass, and metal work. And this year, it got me to thinking about decorative butterflies.
There seemed to be a lot of art that revolved around butterfly decor. For example, there were a number of hand-crafted tea and coffee mugs on which fluttering butterflies had been scratched. I happen to prefer my coffee cups a bit more subtle than that, so we passed on them, but it was interesting.
There were perhaps half a dozen glass butterflies – some of which were actually quite large. I went through a pretty serious glass phase a few years ago. To me, it has an ethereal quality that can put me into a helpfully spiritual frame of mind. The glass butterflies were a bit large – and the coloring, which was a sort of deep orange and green, did not indicate any species of butterfly with which I’m familiar.
We also found a number of fabric crafts that included butterflies – scarves and blouses mainly.
In all these instances, the focus was on butterflies as symbolic of beauty. And I’m cool with that. I’ve written before about the way that butterflies can connect us to the natural beauty of the world and even act as conduits to a deeper, an almost spiritual appreciation of the world.
Yet I was conscious as I looked at all the samples that I was still interested in live butterflies. They are still more dynamic to me than their artificial counterparts. I’m not knocking butterfly art – not at all. But it’s not substitute for encountering the real thing.
That said, as we were leaving the grounds, we happened to pass a small garden. And in it, someone had placed a handful of abstract glass sculptures. Now, it’s November and so most New England gardens are pretty worn down, and this was no exception, but there was a real elegance and beauty to the presence of the art there.
And that got me thinking: maybe it’s time to start sprucing up my live butterfly garden with butterfly art. What do you think?
Comments on this entry are closed.