Rough Draft Butterfly

I suddenly realized this afternoon that a lot of the restless dissatisfied feeling I've been having lately is the desire to make art. Artistic impulses are something I usually try to discourage or at least minimize in myself these days. If I missed a calling as an artist, I accept the fact that I did just that--missed it. Fiddling around with art is absorbing and fun, but really distracting. I try to think of my dissertation as the real creative endeavor, and funnel my energy into that. But face it, there are times when a dissertation just isn't art. There are times when it can be of course. But not all the time. There's just some part of me that is left totally unsatisfied by it right now.

I know, I know. The desire to make art is itself probably just a displaced message from my biological clock, telling me to reproduce. It's all a tangle. But what makes it simpler is origami butterflies. I made an origami butterfly on plain white paper and then unfolded and painted the parts I thought would show. Then I folded it back up again. This is just a rough draft; I used ordinary printer paper. This is bad for origami, which wants something thicker, and also for watercolor, which wants something thinner. I know the perfect solution, which is moistened rice paper. But I wanted to try it out and see how it would work and whether I enjoyed doing it. I enjoyed doing it A LOT. So next time I'll try with rice paper.

A butterfly's wings are an appealing combination of copying from nature and improvisation. I can look at National Geographic pictures to get ideas, but in mapping it onto the disconnected segments of folded butterfly wing, of course there is a great deal of artistic license involved. Next time I will paint the whole paper on both sides (using a paper that reacts more happily to water) so that there won't be white edges showing. Still, the rough draft butterfly looks very jaunty and pleasing from across the room.

By the way, new entry on Book Draft here.