Of Birthdays and Butterflies

Having reached an age on my birthday on March 17 that I should be able to do what I want, I began a series that follows an interest of mine since I first became aware of life beyond eating and sleeping. One of my first memories is watching bees visiting the hollyhocks that ringed my sandbox and I have been fascinated with things that creep and fly ever since. And in the past couple of years I have begun to look closely at all the tiny creatures that inhabit our world--and to try to remember their names and idiosyncrasies. I began to think that translating what I am seeing into fabric and stitch might help my memory and my observation. So I challenged myself to make a five-inch square each week based on an insect.

I am now on my fifth week--more on the first four next week. And this time I focused on a butterfly I photographed a couple of years ago that is strangely called the Red-spotted Purple, even though the red is more orange-red and the purple reads blue and black with maybe a shimmer of purple. But this butterfly looks entirely differently when seen with wings open or wings closed (I could make a connection at this point to how differently we look when we are on guard or relaxed, but I won't).

And here is my abstracted version of the Red-spotted Purple cut by a horizon line with colors of the underwing forming the sky and those of the dark upper side suggesting the earth: 

It was concept to finished five-inch square in one very busy week!

This is linked to Off the Wall Friday so check out what others have been accomplishing this week.