I am thinking of creating another handmade art book. My idea is to have it structured like “Dualities”, the book I made for the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art fundraiser. (See post from Wednesday, February 23, 2011.) Like “Dualities”, it can be opened page by page or opened out like an accordion. When fully opened, it can stand by itself and be seen in its entirety.
This time, instead of abstract paintings, I plan to show caterpillars and the moths or butterflies that they become. I’m thinking of “Little Book of Metamorphosis” as a possible title.
I have a collection of previously painted caterpillars that I did for the large watercolor painting, “Butterflies, Moths, Caterpillars”. Using Photoshop, I can isolate and reproduce the ones I want to include. I’ll need to do new watercolor paintings of the moths and butterflies to go with them, though, so that’s what I’ve started working on.
My first installment is a watercolor of the moth Arconicta funeralis, also known as the Funerary Dagger Moth. It comes from the Paddle Caterpillary, which is aptly named.
You can see the original large painting above, as well as the isolated caterpillar and the brand new moth painting.