brave butterflies funded by creative sonoma + the geyserville community foundation
the brave butterflies project first began in april 2022, when i was accepted into the Creative Sonoma ArtSurround training and grant program. the photo above features the artists and advocates involved in the 2022-2023 program. the information below is sampled from the Creative Sonoma website:
ArtSurround is a new collaborative effort among the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to enhance Sonoma County’s creative vitality by supporting artists and infusing the arts into our public realm. The program engages businesses and public agencies that endeavor to enhance community livability through the arts, and fosters public imagination by supporting artists who work at the intersection of inspiration and effective community arts engagement. This program engages two different cohorts: an Artist Cohort and an Advocate Cohort, who will work on parallel tracks to increase community arts engagement across Sonoma County.
Artists must have applied for this Cohort, which is comprised of approximately twenty to thirty (20-30) individual artists and culture workers who are interested in building a practice in community engagement and public art. Cohort members participated in the customized training to enhance their skills to engage communities, transform public spaces and processes, and use the arts to address civic and business challenges.
Applications to join the Artist Cohort were reviewed by a diverse panel comprised of community and arts peers, funders, and representatives from program partners. Reviewers assessed applicants’ materials based on the following:
Previous achievements, technical competence, and future promise in their creative and cultural pursuits
Work that is driven by collaboration, equity, and reciprocity
The ability to tell stories that span issues and experiences through their artwork or creative process, and/or an interest in building community ecosystems through integration of arts and culture into the public realm
i was very excited to be paired with my advocate, the Geyserville Sculpture Trail, who already had an idea for a community-fueled butterfly installation on the trail. our project was solidified with a $5,000 grant from the Creative Sonoma ArtSurround program, and an additional $2,500 from the Geyserville Community Foundation. the only question for myself was: how to pair printmaker with sculpture art?
above are photos from my first visit to the Geyserville Sculpture Trail. i was immediately enamored with the setting, the art, the surrounding wildflowers, and the community garden across the street. not only was my project going to involve art and design — i would be able to tie in pollination and sustainable agriculture into the project!
the inspiration
Bryce Jones of the Geyserville Sculpture Garden already had an idea in mind: a kinetic installation, featuring steel butterflies painted by every student within the Geyserville School District.
armed with a sandwich baggie containing 12 toy butterflies, we scanned and vectorized them, and i edited to prepare for steel cutouts for the kids to paint.
with experience teaching kids and adults of all ages, i was excited to immerse myself in the community collaboration available in the project.
not only was i able to exercise my design skills in the installation itself, i was allowed to share ideas with the kids within a workbook, which encouraged the classes to utilize different design concepts including typography, lines, patterns, and symmetry.
Bryce was vigilant when it came to the steel cut outs — we eliminated sharp edges, removed abdomens to make room for railroad nails (!!), and simplified in ways that would make handling and painting easier for kids of all ages.
after recruiting Reliable Hardware and Steel for the cutouts, Bryce and his connections got to work sanding edges, bending butterfly wings, and finally — welding on the recycled railroad nails, provided by SMART (Sonoma-Marin Area Railroad Transit). the nails are PERFECT. they look just like a butterfly’s body! and no two butterflies are alike, each one has different wing shapes and bends.
after the welding was complete, Bryce primed the butterflies to be painted by the students.
while Bryce was welding, i was busy designing the sketchbook for the students to use before painting their butterflies. Santa Rosa Printing generously donated paper and bindery services to my project.
after books and butterflies were ready, we delivered to Geyserville Elementary in the spring of 2023 and Geyserville New Tech High School in the summer of 2023. aside from the design sketchbooks provided, students were encouraged to use their own imagination and creative expression when painting their butterflies.
Bryce, i, and other volunteers spent time in each classrooms helping the students with their wings.
the results were stunning, to say the least.
above is a sampling of the butterflies painted by the Geyserville Elementary School students. below is a sampling from the students within Geyserville New Tech Academy. the elementary school serves students in grades TK-5; the Geyserville New Tech Academy houses middle school 6-8, high school grades 9-12
Bryce & his team welded the butterfly bodies to steel vineyard rods of varying lengths. around 200 butterflies will be displayed in the garden, which will sway as the northern california breezes that blow through geyserville.
