Art with wings: Butterfly art takes flight with fanciful and dynamic images

The metamorphoses from blank metal canvases to beautifully decorated butterflies are complete.
Two dozen local artists saw the images through their own cocoon of creativity, and the final creations have been installed in 19 locations around downtown.

Some look like true representations of insects, others more colorful representations of a yet-to-be-discovered breed. Still others depict paintbrushes, piano keys and owls, to name a few of the renditions.
“Butterflies & Friends,” created by The Rotary Club of Colorado Springs, has raised more than $100,000 through the life of the project, which is now in its fourth year. The money, which is generated each year with an event-capping auction in mid-September, is split between benefitting designated classroom recipients of D11 schools and the club’s community service fund.

“Art education helps students do better at math and become better students, and it actually helps students work better with each other,” said Maile Foster, the project chair. “But, lo and behold, it’s one of those things that gets cut first.”

This year, the beneficiaries are Rogers and Twain elementary schools, who will use the funds for arts programs. The project will also provide sufficient funds to allow schools across the district to purchase used musical instruments.

“We are making a noticeable difference by providing arts education for students that they would not get otherwise,” Foster says.

Mary Adoretti
“Figure of Speech”
Pioneer Museum, 215 S. Tejon St.
The butterfly by Adoretti, a studio artist for the Cottonwood Center for the Arts, features sign language and braille phrases against bright orange and blue backdrops.

Joe Bishop
“Soaring Spirit”
Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade.
Bishop was born with a rare birth defect, agenesis of the corpus callosum. As a result, he is severely physically disabled and unable to speak. Through painting, Bishop has found an outlet of expression. His butterfly seemingly is translucent against a red sun.

Leigh Blackburn
“A Chorus Line”
Pioneer Museum, 215 S. Tejon St.
Blackburn is currently studying wildlife and nature art. Her butterfly features an owl perched in a tree as other animals look on.

Lupita Carrasco
“Zodiak A Flutter”
Garden of the Gods Club, 3320 Mesa Road

“Virtuoso Mariposo”
Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade.

“Painted Ladies”
Country Club of Colorado, 125 E. Clubhouse Drive
Carrassco’s rich Mexican culture and traditional Catholic upbringing show up strongly in her paintings through color and subject matter. Her three pieces show constellations, keyboards and a lifelike representation of a butterfly.

Phelan Carrasco
“Apogee”
Colorado College-Cornerstone Arts Center, 825 N. Cascade Ave.
Phelan Carrasco is currently a student attending the Vanguard school. His butterfly depicts mechanical workings against a brown background.

Allie M Doersch
“Flower + Shine”
Garden of the Gods Club, 3320 Mesa Road
Doersch is currently an upcoming junior studying illustration at Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Fla. She has painted a fiery-colored flower against a sky backdrop on her butterfly.

Evette Goldstein
“Colorado Springs (from Pikes Peak)”
Bancroft Park, 2408 W. Colorado Ave.
Goldstein is participating in the Rotary Club’s Butterflies and Friends for a fourth time. Her abstract butterfly offers a unique vision into the layout of Colorado Springs.

Julie Holladay
“Creativity Burst”
Pine Creek Gallery, 2419 W. Colorado Ave.
As a child, Holladay looked at the world through a magnifying glass, always in amazement as to how and why things worked. She never grew out of that astonishment and eventually went on to study Science and Art through Western Michigan University. Bouyant, colorful bubbles are the focus of her butterfly.

Rebecca Hyde
“Unbound”
Cheyenne Mountain Resort, 3225 Broadmoor Valley Rd.
Much of Hyde’s work is emotionally charged and drawn from deeply personal experiences as well as observations of the human condition.  Her butterfly has rustic, woodsy tones.

Gloria Lynch
“Blue Birds Butterfly (BBB)”
Colorado College-Cornerstone Arts Center, 825 N. Cascade Ave.
Trained as a stage designer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, Italy, Gloria’s art features European inspired faux finishes and interior design consultation. Her butterfly displays bluebirds resting in a tree.

Mia Lynch
“Rosa”
The Squash Blossom, 2531 W. Colorado Ave.
Ever since she could pick up a paint brush, Lynch has been painting an learning under the direction of her mother, fellow participating artist Gloria Lynch. Her butterfly is reminiscent of flowers found outside a secluded New England cabin.

Gloria & Mia Lynch
“Sonia”
Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave.
The offering from the mother-daughter pair features bright circular shapes against a plain, white background that catches the eye instantly.

Carol A. McIntyre
“Colorado State Insect: The Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly”
Hunter-Wolff Gallery, 2510 W. Colorado Ave.
McIntyre traded her blue suits of corporate life in for an artist’s smock shortly after her late mother-in-law introduced her to watercolors in 1987. Her tree-toned butterfly features sharp lines and crisp detail.

Mimi Mitchell
“Butterfly Landscape”
Garden of the Gods Visitor Center, 1805 N. 30th St.
Mitchell currently works at her studio business, Angel8Arts, producing fused, stained, painted glass, mixed media, and Oil paintings. Her butterfly showcases red mountains against a clear sky with flowers in the forefront.

Lita Montaño
“One World Together”
Cornish & Dell’Olio, 431 N. Cascade
As an adult, Montaño began designing and creating her own quilts, as well as painting, jewelry making and continued her love of photography. Her butterfly offers a worldview into geography and language.

Sherri Moore
“Colors of Creation”
Swan-Law, 501 N. Cascade Ave.
Moore believes art was part of what gave her confidence and value in life, and hopes all children and teens have that opportunity. She believes in this trying world, it would be a shame to miss the awesome beauty and our privilege to create and enjoy. Her butterfly has a neon feel, with light greens, yellows, reds and blues.

Deborah Nelson
“Daybreak/Nightfall”
Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St.
Debbi started with mosaic mailboxes but how focuses on wall art or indoor custom work, such as backsplashes in kitchens, bathrooms and laundry rooms.  Her butterfly features dawn colors on the outer wings and evening colors on the inner wings and has a stained glass window feel.

Susan O’Connell
“Many Wing-ed Creature”
Imagination Celebration, Citadel Mall.
“Pallette Takes Wing”
Cheyenne Mountain Resort, 3225 Broadmoor Valley Road
O’Connell was an illustrator for the U.S.  Forest Service and for an archaeologist through private contract.  She has completed commissioned murals in private and public venues and invitations for various organizations including the American Heart Association in Florida. Her two butterflies feature different aspects and views of painting.

Kenneth Pederson
“Winged Cathedral”
Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave.
Pederson works with enamel on masonite, and the end result is a painting that only slightly resembles the painting he originally painted. His butterfly is like viewing a sunset through a stained glass church window.

Pikes Peak Decorative Painters
“Winged Wildflowers”
Antler’s Hilton, 4 S. Cascade Ave.
“Wings of Tranquility”
Pikes Peak & Tejon, NW Corner
The Pikes Peak Decorative Painters was started in 1976 and is the local affiliate chapter of the national Society of Decorative Painters. The PPDP has more than 50 members, whose skill levels range from beginning to advanced. Its two butterflies feature wildflowers through a window and hummingbirds sipping pollen.

Debbie L Prewitt
“Zen in the Garden”
Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St.
Much of Prewitt’s art is considered mixed media fiber art, which allows her to use virtually anything in my compositions. Her butterfly is an abstract, black-and-white view of a garden scene.

Carole Reece
“So Tired”
Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St.
“I-M C-N U Bear”
El Paso Club, 30 E. Platte Ave.
Combining her love of animals and color, Reece creates her own style of pop art and captures personality and emotion in each piece. Her two butterflies are contrasting eyes-open and eyes-closed pieces.

Dusty R. Shutt
“Morpho’s Garden”
Pioneer Museum, 215 S. Tejon St.
Shutt creates a wide variety of art from photo impressionistic tigers to pop art pet portraits that invite the viewer to come closer. Her blue morpho-inspired butterfly features a garden scene on the inside of its wings.

Janet Sellers
“Claire as a Butterfly”
El Paso Club, 30 E. Platte Ave.
Sellers’ public art work has been seen and enjoyed by millions of people on international television, in newspapers and on film. Her butterfly features a young girl adorned with flowers.

Prachi Vanage
“The Contrast”
Pikes Peak Avenue and Tejon Street, SE Corner
Vanage tries to explore different art techniques when possible and has discovered that it is also good way for self expression. Vanage’s butterfly features psychedelic tones in flowers, but offers contrasting grays as well.

Sally Ann Wilson
“Monarch Butterfly”
Antler’s Hilton, 4 S. Cascade Ave.
An award-winning painter, Wilson is an active member of The Pikes Peak Watercolor Society, The Mountain Artists, The Colorado Watercolor Society and the Garden Artists Plein Air Group. Her butterfly is an accurate and lifelike representation of a monarch butterfly.