Coloured Pencil on Paper
H:22.4 cm x W:22 cm
2021
Leaving a Piece of Youth
When I was a very young child, I killed a butterfly. When I saw what I had done I was appalled and horrified - for the first time, I tasted death and I knew what it was.
Now I am middle aged. Time is racing by, it seems, and I see myself aging. The ability to bring forth children is almost gone, the traces of my youth, leaving. Again, I can taste death. In the midst of this transition however, I remind myself that I am also a part of nature - and I sense that a transformative beauty could be found in metamorphosis.
In Matt Haig's 'The Comfort Book,' in a chapter titled 'Caterpillar,' Haig compares the fate and struggles facing the caterpillar to that of our own:
'The greatest changes stem from the darkest experiences. We fall apart to become new. We go through the dark to fly in the sun.'
This self-portrait was made with crayon on paper.