Or maybe I’ll be a moth.
Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m going through a life change. It’s been pretty formless and hard to put into words. But now I think I know. I think it’s a change in the direction of my art.
For the last six years, I’ve been writing and illustrating animal fiction. It’s been fun and satisfying, but also demanding. I’m currently working on illustrating my seventh book. With between thirty-five and fifty illustrations per book, each title is a very time-consuming process, and to make progress I have to focus as best I can. Mostly, I’ve limited other types of art projects to the weekends, but that has its drawbacks. Even working on an art journal spread can take two or three weekends, so that process gets interrupted by getting back to my “regular work” during the week. I guess it's the old, familiar problem of too many projects and too little time....
So, I’ve been thinking about decoupling my art and my writing. I’m actually working on two books currently, and one of them I’ve decided not to illustrate-at least, not fully. I’m creating the cover art in color and the frontispiece and chapter heads in black and white. Once the writing is done, getting the book ready for publishing is a much faster process than with a fully-illustrated book. Yet, it still has my artwork in it. I think it’s a good compromise. I’ll continue to fully illustrate any further Christmas books I write, though.
Anyway, once I make that transition, I’ll have a lot more freedom in my visual art. But what will I use that freedom for?
For a good part of the time, I’ll be working on animal art with a spiritual bent. The image here is an acrylic on illustration board piece that I did about eight years ago. Of all the things I still have, it best represents the type of thing I’ll be working on.
It’s not art about “spirit animals.” Actually, the spirit animal concept no longer resonates with me. I don’t believe that animals exist to serve us in various ways—including guarding or guiding—but that they’re our brothers and sisters on this earth, equally beloved by God.
I’m really looking forward to working in this way and think it is an important turning point for me. I’m grateful it’s come along!
But I started out asking what kind of butterfly or moth I’ll be. So, what does that mean?
Metamorphsis is a process of transformation in which a butterfly pupa, having transformed from an egg and then a larva, changes into the adult insect—butterfly. Special cells, called imaginal cells, have existed at all former stages: one imaginal cell for each eventual adult body part. The pupa forms a protective shell called the chrysalis. Within the pupa, enzymes break down the body except for those imaginal cells. Once all the rest of the body is broken down, the imaginal cells use the substance within the chrysalis to form the adult body parts, and once the process is complete, the fully formed adult butterfly emerges into the world. The process works the same way for moths except that the pupa is called a cocoon.
I feel like I’ve made a similar transformation lately in my art, and that all the art forms I’ve worked with in the past have acted as the imaginal cells in this recent transformation. Could it be that I’m now becoming an adult artist?
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