"Monarchs", August 13, 2023
This is my favorite drawing I've done! I got the basic idea of a woman turning into a butterfly from scribbling, and the final concept of her pulling them into existence sprung from there when I actually went down to draw it. Monarch butterflies are my favorite kind of butterfly, and sadly migratory populations are becoming more and more threatened. If nothing changes, the migration seems to be at serious risk of failing. Climate change, habitat loss, and pesticide use are all major contributors to the loss of monarchs, and of insect populations more generally. (Despite this, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declined in 2020 to protect monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act, citing needs to protect higher priority species; it is still awaiting listing.) One of the larger threats to the monarch is the destruction of Asclepias species, commonly known as milkweed (the concept of a "weed" is one of the more insidious social constructs; what plants get conisdered weeds and which do not is absolutely political and colonial). This is why it's important for the woman, as she's creating these butterflies, to create the Asclepias flowers to go with them - everything is one big interdependent web. People can destroy that web, but I believe strongly that we can also be an important and critical part in its maintenence and creation. The dancer is as much a monarch as the butterflies themselves! I think it's important she's a dancer. There's a great sense of joy and motion in this. I can imagine her about to spin right and pull the world as she goes.
- Wanda