The butterflies series is an exploration into how life is transformed by chronic illness, debility and altered by life saving organ transplantation. I received a double lung transplant in 2015 and have been examining and rebuilding my identity ever since. These butterflies are made out of deconstructed hospital gowns, scrubs, moving blankets and the scraps of failed paintings. I make gestured marks with colored pencils on the hospital gowns and sew together the materials- out of that grow the butterflies.
I’m using hospital gowns and moving blankets because these two materials have so much emotion driven into them through our human experience, individually and collectively. Each stands as embodied past, present and future- representations of our physical history, a moment of transition in collective physical and emotional labor, and the hope and mystery of a future unknown.
Butterflies were made in 2023 with colored pencils on hospital gowns, parts of paintings, moving blankets, hospital grippy socks, mylar balloons