Butterfly in Tones of Blue
This post will gradually show a small group of my greeting cards, each of which has, on the front, one of my watercolor paintings or an ink drawing, and, on the back, a small story that pertains to the painting. The stories are much like my blogposts but abbreviated, the aim of which is to fulfill the essence of the picture.
This is what is written on the back of the card:
Two of its wings are the blue of the ocean in the clear days of
summer, and two are the watery blue of the sky in spring. One
would think a butterfly the most fragile of creatures, yet I heard
that Monarch butterflies migrate like birds, and travel up to
three thousand miles to the same winter roosts, often even the
very same tree.
It seems almost unbelievable, yet is convincing of the mysteri-
ous intelligence embedded in all life.
- AKS
In the process of looking up things about blue butterflies, I found two wonderful articles, published at around the same time, in the New Yorker and the New York Times:
The New Yorker, "Nabokov's Blue Butterflies", written by Erin Overbey, January 26, 2011
The New York Times, "Nabokov's Theory On Butterfly Evolution is Vindicated", written by Carl Zimmer, January 25, 2011
The blue butterflies Nabokov studied are the Polyommatus blues. I somehow thought a blue butterfly something rarely seen...and was so glad to find these articles and the remarkable things Nabokov knew about them, such as their ability to travel the long distances referred to in my story on the back of the card.
Here are links to both the articles mentioned above:
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/nabokovs-blue-butterflies
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/science/01butterfly.html?emc=eta1
Sunset Flowers
