Life is fragile.  This tenuous state is particularly evident in the smaller living creatures around us.  When I first decided to use butterflies as my subjects for a painting series, I ordered 12 Painted Lady larvae from a science company.  It was November, and I wanted to have a physical reference to work from as well as to study the life cycle of the subject.  Of the 12 larvae that arrived, 10 survived to enter the cocoon and 8 survived the cocoon and became butterflies.  By the end of the first month, I had around 5 butterflies, 2 of which survived three months.  (Which is longer than their estimated life span).  This fragility of life makes the butterfly stage more beautiful and precious.  The butterfly is a testimony to survival.
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