Wings Poised

So I’ve done something a little (very) strange for me.  I have a Facebook artist’s page now, Wings Poised. Facebook scary, oooo, but I looked it in the eye and hit its sign up button. Balls.

 

Anyway, you’ll find the following post there, which I’ve adapted here for this blog, and at the end of this post, some photos of said wings. . . .

 

On my sister Facebook page, Wings Poised, created what I hope is a good enough gallery to showcase some of the work I've done with wire, nylon, polyester thread, and acrylic paints. In the past three years, the wings have grown from being fun weird projects for every 31st of October, to an artform, as painstaking yet rewarding as painting on any normal canvas or a wall or with Photoshop. It seemed odd, at first, that I was essentially making my own canvases, but then it became routine--I measure the wire into two pieces of varying length, cut them with wire strippers, bend them into shape, connect them. . . and some time later, have a blank canvas of nylon that is ready for painting.

 

--And then I wore a pair of them on Halloween, and I was warmed by comments. I almost took them off and gave them to a lady and her little girl; that is how much she liked them and that is how much something in me responded to that: Hey, stupid, you should sell these. Or do something with them, anyway. . .

 

So I had this book. It was a kids' book, which I'd had for years and years, a butterfly activity book: coloring pages, connect the dots, that kind of stuff. But it was all about butterflies. The authors of the book belonged to a conservation society. At the back of the book were listed about fifty other societies one could contribute to, or join, and a little bulb went on for me. If the sale of those wings could bring money to a conservation society, then why not see how I might do that. I looked up some stuff, ran across societies that worked with zoos and menageries and things, and they wanted just that sort of item to bring more attention to their cause. And the little bulb got brighter. These aren't just for costuming or decor, they can, if I am skillful enough, become a kind of substitute for collectors. I might save a few of them, if I am lucky and I reach the right people.

 

Good. So, it isn't just glitter and girly fluttery powdery flowery stuff. Yay.

 

When I choose a butterfly or moth, then, I choose amongst the endangered ones because those are the ones conservationists desire to save most. I love to do the rarest ones best of all, and of course the ones with the most interesting colors and patterns. And I am absolutely capable of creating a random one upon request; they take about four days to make. Mostly, they are for wearing, or decor, which means a variety of things that I think of which bring out my inner interior decorator. But they also stand for a fundamental value we all have, I think, that makes us unable to accept that any creature would be hunted, and killed, simply because it was extraordinary.

 

That is why I decided to do Wings Poised.