Peach Blossom

“…the long work

of turning their lives

into a celebration

is not easy. Come 

and let us talk.” 

The Sunflowers. Mary Oliver

Peach Blossom Jim Wiegle

 

My Butterfly Self

By Catherine Marsh

Since retiring I have been going through a process of reinventing myself using dreamwork and art. I have loved and collected masks for many years so as I began my journey into expressing my inner self through art, masks beckoned me. 

When I invited a group of friends to make masks with me, one of them picked up a cocktail napkin I had provided to keep our drinks from staining my table. She started cutting out the napkin’s scarab image for her mask. I squealed with delight. She didn’t understand my excitement. 

Scarab, Bumblebee, Dragonfly, Cicada Masks
Catherine Marsh  2023

I exclaimed, “It’s a scarab.” As I explained the mythology behind this Egyptian symbol, I realized it would be a perfect symbol for my own rebirth – all that new life emerging from the ball of dung rolled by the mother throughout her life.

My scarab mask inspired me to continue making insect masks to represent birth, transformation, and renewal. I made a bumblebee, a dragonfly, and a cicada before attempting my most recent, the butterfly. 

Butterfly Mask Catherine Marsh 2023

The mask is paper mâché covered with a base of acrylic paint, mixed to create a deep blue. I found the butterfly online, printed it and applied it to the mask with Mod Podge. I enhanced it with gold acrylic paint and purple and blue metallic lines and squiggles applied with Crayola metallic markers. I painted the rest of the mask with acrylic paint mixed to match the purple in the butterfly and added copper-colored crystals to bring out the copper color in the butterfly.

Finally, I crowned the mask with a mix of purple-colored butterflies on a fascinator I found when searching for craft headdresses.