Headlands Artists in Residence Program, Marin, CA, 1989

Spring Open Studio

Fennel is an introduced species from Europe. It is also called Anise. Anise swallow tail butterflies use the plant as a larval plant in the Bay Area.

In my small studio at the Headlands Art Center, I created a field of Fennel with 16 penny nails, version of the traditional Japanese flower arrangers needle mat, to form bunches of standing Fennel. I carefully placed 38 pupas of Anise swallowtail into the room on the Fennel stacks and walls. (The pupas were all collected the previous fall in San Francisco.) The window was kept open allowing the adult butterflies to fly out when they emerged from their chrysalises.

Story of a Butterfly

Once a mischievous boy tortured a butterfly in front of a little girl. As he tore the butterfly’s wings, the little girl cried and begged him to stop. But he didn’t stop, and the butterfly died. After the boy went away, there was nothing for the little girl to do, she tearfully gathered the broken wings and body parts, and buried them with flowers.

Many years later, the child was no longer the little girl. But she never forgot about the incident. There were so many mischievous boys and girls she had encountered in her life.

There for she always chose to be isolated from other people.

One early in the morning, she found a newborn butterfly near a large metal garbage container. The butterfly was bathing in the morning sun, preparing to try out its new wings. It looked very fragile. She feared that the butterfly might be hurt. She said to the butterfly, “Please don’t be afraid. I just want to move you to a safe place.” Then she slowly stretched her hand out to the butterfly. At first the butterfly didn’t move, but then it climbed into her hand.

She carried the butterfly to a grass yard that was shining with thousand of morning due. Then she tried to placed it down on a piece of old bark. The butterfly remained on her hand for a while, then climbed on to the wood. The hope between the butterfly and the little girl made long time ago was at that moment fulfilled, and the grass yard became a holy ground.