Mayo Clinic Butterfly Installation

I just received a few photo of the butterfly sculptures installed at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Care Center. This was a lovely project to work on. The butterfly forms echo butterflies found in Minnesota: the Tiger Swallowtail and the Gray Comma. Here are some postings on the process of creating these pieces, early sketches , and a preliminary small model.

Mixed media butterfly sculptures installed at Cancer Care Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

Another view of butterflies installed

Butterfly Sculpture Sample

Last week I sent off a miniature sample of a butterfly sculpture and two color/sample material boards to a client. Today I heard that the design direction was approved so I am moving forward on making the final large scale sculptures.

Below: miniature sample study of butterfly sent to client:

Detail showing Chinese knot cording that will be added to the butterflies.

materials samples board include Asian food wrappers, chopstick wrappers, origami paper, organza, and tissue paper.

Butterflies for Mayo Clinic

Sketches were recently approved for the creation of two large butterfly sculpture for the Pediatric Cancer Care Clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The butterfly colors will harmonize with the carpet and furniture of the waiting area. The butterfly on the left is an interpretation of a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and the one on the right is an interpretation of a Gray Comma. Both are found in Minnesota.

I am currently working on the wire forms for these pieces. The process begins with twisting magnet wire with electrician wire twisters and then bending this twisted wire into shape against large sketches drawn on bicycle box panels. When the wire forms are completed, they are removed from the cardboard box panels and the fabric and papers are glued and stitched on. The last stage is the application of a two part surfboard epoxy resin.

Butterfly Tapestry

Here are in progress images of my butterfly tapestry. There are two hair ornaments that come off of this one. The center of the wire flowers are mini shoyu bottle caps. The paper butterflies are recycled postcard and print materials from the de Young Museum. The butterfly pattern is inspired by a Japanese textile in their online image collection.


























































































Cardboard sketch and the beginning of wire work.




















Mesh being added. This mesh is remnant mesh from Walker Bag of San Francisco.

























































Below, one of two large hair ornaments that come off of the tapestry.