Franky Cruz didn’t set out to have a butterfly lab as an artist’s studio, but when a YouTube video about healing broken butterfly wings piqued his interest, there was no turning back. That video led to a performance piece, which led to an exhibition, which became a whole process of catching and releasing butterflies and bringing them into his studio. It was there he discovered that the butterflies secrete a pigmented substance called meconium when they emerge from their chrysalises. “I decided to slip watercolor paper under there and start collecting it, like collecting abstract data,” Cruz says. “Each splatter is a portrait of the metamorphosis process. I realized the butterflies were already making this beautiful abstract painting.” In this way, his work is a collaboration with them.
Read the full story at Miami New Times.
Photo by Diana Larrea, via Miami New Times
