This piece started as a simple woodcut — black butterflies, white paper, fast cuts. It needed more.

 

I went back in with metallic watercolor, painting every wing by hand. In low light it's quiet and soft. When the light hits it right, the whole swarm flashes blue — like you see in the field, that split second when a Blue Morpho or a Common Blue opens its wings.

 

The relief print holds the structure — the chaos of a hatch, all moving in one direction, overlapping, pushing. The metallic paint brings the life back. It's mixed media in the truest sense: carving for the movement, painting for the shimmer.

 

It’s about abundance. About those moments in summer when the air itself feels alive.