Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness-flies (2010)

Stacey M puts on an annual Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Awareness fundraising Morning Tea. This year I offered to bring some pink-themed butterfly collections for a silent auction. Very generous attendees shelled out somewhere in the $90 range for these three pink specimans. Overwhelmed by how taken people were.

rainbowflies (2009)

These are my butterfly collections. I'd seen something like this in an interior design magazine years ago, liked it and decided to do something similar. As I've done them my style has evolved - than goodness. And thank goodness I have every Vogue (UK and US) since 1992 to 2007 so I have plenty of source material.

This particular one was commissioned for a friend who liked the "ones that had order and neatness"

rainbow mobius (2009)

I like me a rainbow. This took hours of finding the right shades. It might be a bit full. Sold though.

surferflies (2009)

This was my first real evolution with the butterfly notion. Prior to this all the pics were the traditional display. I've always liked this picture (from a Taschen catalogue) and I wanted to see the whole picture. Loved this. It sold at Thorndon Fair for someone to send overseas - good luck with that.

tartanflies (2009)

This collection utilised the cyclical trend of tartan from 03/04. (Thank you UK Vogue)

striperflies (2009)

Stripes - seemed simple enough but finding the right sources, going in the right direction, in the right colours and contrast was not as straightforward (pun intended).

Marilyn of the Butterflies (2009)

Inspired by surferflies, I had this image of Marilyn Monroe, was a big Marilyn fan and hoped someone would recognise her. Someone did and bought her. Also it reminded me of Dali's Galatea of the Spheres, hence the name.

Collage 1 (2009)

This started out as a combined mess of butterflies from collage 1 and 2. Friend JoW said "eh, I don't like it too messy - I'd follow CRAP (contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity)" I agreed. I did. I liked. At Thorndon Fair everyone liked but no one bought - which surprised me as I thougt these were the most purely decorative. Huh, people - whatever.

Collage 2 (2009)

Companion piece to collage 1 - companion because the source for the two pictures came from the same editorial.

calendarflies (2009)

Sourced from an oriental flower calendar. I really liked the blue in this.

orientalflies (2009)

Sourced from the same oriental flower calendar as calendarflies I did this based on design friend JoW's suggestion that maybe I create a 'realistic' image/scene from the source. It's not my favourite because it wasn't very hard, but people liked it at Thorndon Fair and on Flickr. Again, people - whatever.

canvasflies (2009)

I wanted to thank and give a housewarming gift to friend JoW. In her home I noticed texture, neutrals and nature. I had this picture of a canvas bag (Louis Vuitton as I recall). It had the texture, and it had the nature stuff. I couldn't get nine butterflies from the image so two are from other sources. No one notices though. Anyhoo, I gave JoW two options. She chose the other. But then this became a Christmas gift for a colleague.

passionflies (2009)

This is the housewarming gift friend JoW chose. Instantly upon sight. Very happy I went with two options.

Facet Face (2009)

I've had this image for years and didn't want to lose the pixelated effect with the butterflies. Then I did Hurleyflies, and thought - perfect - I'll do the faceted face like facetflies!

graffitiflies (2009)

This was an exercise in a single colour. Very effective. Sold.

hurleyflies (2009)

This was a Lancome-Elizabeth Hurley ad. I really just wanted to test out the facet-option. So technically not a 'flies'. Sold (as gift for someone else).

Butterfly Kisses (2009)

These all came from a runway makeup article. Did call them 'liperflies' until I looked at them as I wrote these words and thought 'butterfly kisses'!

jewelflies (2009)

I love jewellery! So there are a few of these.

jewelleryflies (2009)

More jewellery.

powderflies (2009)

More jewellery, but also some powder eyeshadow and jelly.

perfumerflies (2009)

My absolute favourite. The butterflies are pictures of perfume bottles from over the top. Just loved the pattern. These are owned by me.

sandwichflies (2009)

The source for this was an Irving Penn shot of a cheese sandwich covered in ants. I like it, but it looks a mess. I think it works.

New Zealand / Aotearoa (2008)

I did these two companion-piece images as gifts for kiwi friends when I went over to London to stay - usually for free. I've also given these as gifts to visiting designers from overseas. They were inspired by the desire to use the Aotearoa lady who I found in a Te Papa brochure, and by me wanting to do one of those cool graphics with the mirror-image-collage look.

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Sparrowsfart - blue (2009)

These are coasters. Inspired by the 'up at sparrowsfart' saying, I billed these as 'Up at Sparrowsfart Morning Coffee Coasters' at Thorndon Fair. Or I would have if I'd got the polyurethane varnish of these bastards right. Too thick, showed the paper, bubbles, brushmarks. I protoyped about five techniques. Thought I'd nailed the process, did 40 and they were all, bar one (which Dad got for Christmas) rubbish. So they will be sanded and I will try again next year. There is no such thing as a mistake - only learning...

Sparrowsfart - red (2009)

Sparrowsfart - orange (2009)

Sparrowsfart - yellow (2009)

Sparrowsfart - green (2009)

Sparrowsfart - turquoise (2009)

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Japanese Girl (2006)

Linda G asked if I was interested in an Oamaru Stone carving course. Of course I was. I'd picked up a flyer from an exhibition of these dolls eons ago and took it along. Little did I know that it would inspire such a fabulously easy piece of sculpture made all the more effective by creating a multi-tonal paua-shell kimono - which was pain-stakingly glued on over two night, whilst half-watching Patrick Swayze starring in the tele-mini-series, King Solomon's mines. Classic TV. She stands 38cm high.

Venus (2006)

After my success with Japanese Girl I went Oamaru sculpting/carving crazy! This was a venus, based on a picture I saw in an interior design magazine with a statue on a table.

Broken Venus (2006)

Then I tried to recreate the venus. Dropped it. And decided the drop was accidentally on purpose enabling me to create 'Broken Venus' a stark comment on the fleetingness of beauty...

Dove (2006)

Inspired (read: copy of) by a Matisse dove. I can't find the source image to compare, but Les Oiseaux is pretty close.

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