Leaving the Artistic Nest

I am lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing artist everyday.  We learn from each other and inspire one another, and are in a constant community of creativity.  But... I graduate in May.  One of my largest fears regarding graduation is just that.  I will be leaving my creative community.  I will no longer be working side by side with the people who know my work best.  I am constantly worried about how my work is perceived by others, as all artists are.  However, these people I have spent so much time with, know my work so well.  They know my true intentions behind my work.  What happens when I graduate, and my audience changes.  People who don't know me won't know what a butterfly means to me, not like my classmates.  I have to start to figure out how to make my work and my intention more 'readable'.  More than that I need to learn how to continue to create without constantly being surround by the creative atmosphere of an art school.

Artistic Coincidences: Part 2

I recently bought a caterpillar-to-butterfly kit online, one of the ones where they give you food and a cage and everything.  When the caterpillars came there where a total of seven.  As time went on they began to cocoon.  However, only six successfully made it to cocoon.  And after that, only five emerged from the cocoon to live as butterflies.  They lived in my apartment for almost a month; during that time I became very attached to them.  I would wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of their wings fluttering, I looked forward to seeing them after a long day; they became part of my life.  As I reflected on this experience I realized how telling the situation was.  I have always held my family sacred to me, and I often represent my family with butterflies.  The fact that only five butterflies lived represents each member of my family.  The fact that only five butterflies made it became more of an obligation rather than coincidence.  I knew that the butterflies had to become something much more than fleeting pets.  They needed to become part of my art practice.

Artistic Coincidences

My Grandfather passed away when I was in eighth grade.  The day of his funeral, I had a track meet, I was on a relay so I had to leave the funeral and go straight to the meet.  I thought a lot about the service on the drive to the meet.  I thought about how my mother lost a father, how my grandmother lost a husband, and I thought about how my siblings were handling loosing a grandparent for the first time.  I got to the track meet at the same time my relay was about to start, I hopped on the track and within a minute it was my turn to race.  I grabbed the baton from the girl before me and as I started my run around the track, I noticed a butterfly just ahead of me.  My grandfather loved butterflies and that is how my grandmother chose to memorialize him since his death.  As I continued around the track, the butterfly began leading me.  The butterfly flew the whole way around the track, and nearly crossed the finish line with me.
As I was reflecting on this story recently, I realized my interest in art directly coincided with the importance of butterflies in my life.  I started to become seriously interested in the art field when I was in eighth grade.  The same time my grandfather passed, the first major death within my close family.  Even though butterflies had not appeared visually in my artwork until college, I have always had a firm connection to them.   My art practice has always been connected to my family, I had never realized just how strongly.