Morpho Violacea
4' X 6', Acrylic on Canvas
Copyright 4/16/02
$1,500.00
This beautiful butterfly is one of the Morphos, meaning "beautiful" or "well-made". This particular variety is native to Brazil, where, when a member of certain tribe dies, a sacred dance is done that imitates the powerful flight of the Morpho, to symbolize the soul that has left the body for distant places. The colors are caused by microscopic striations on the scales, which refract only the blue rays of the color spectrum. The males, the subject of this piece, are more brilliantly colored than the females. This piece is another in a series of paintings I am composing on the computer and then making by hand with acrylic on canvas. The meticulous jeweled patterns of colors are done with thousands of small dots applied by brush to emulate the iridescence of the Morpho.