This project began with an artistic urge to embody the beauty of a butterfly’s flight. I wrote the following line as an early expression of that urge, “If a dove is the symbol for peace, a butterfly is the symbol for change. Change is inevitable; making it beautiful is a choice.” I created my first puppet/costume out of a yellow bedsheet bought at a thrift store. I sewed on a hood and asked Juliana to paint it as a Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. The magic occurred when I inserted the poles beneath the wings and held them pointing upwards backwards to enable the beating of the wings from back, out to the side, and back again in quick and seemingly effortless succession. Our first public use of these butterflies was at the 2019 Drawdown Learn Conference at the Omega Institute in NY. We have since used them at various climate strikes, performances at our Boulder City Climate Mobilization Action Plan Event, for photo shoots in National Parks and various cities, and in a procession on International Women’s Day to the United Nations building in NYC.

This project has transformed into an immersive performance experience for participants to travel through all four stages of a butterfly’s metamorphosis, from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly. In creating the eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalis/hammocks for this “performance,” I enjoy the material pleasure of imaging how to generate and create costumes for each stage to enrich and deepen this experience. I cherish the sharing of all of this with others to continue our collective transformation in art, life, and interspecies co-becoming as a part of the natural world.