From the fragility of life one expands to the idea of overcoming.  This has different implications and connotations for each individual.  However, a butterfly has survived egg, larvae, caterpillar, cocoon, and now it is in the final life stage as an adult butterfly.  Everyone has struggles and the cocoon can be a dark and lonely place.  It is interesting that while I am in a cocoon–I am painting butterflies.

The butterfly has worked hard through the hardship of fighting out of the cocoon and stretching it’s wings.  It is interesting that compassion is not for us to stretch it’s wings for it (and inadvertently kill it), but for us to let it succeed.  In a way the struggles we face make us stronger.  Do they make us stronger in preparation for the next bigger challenge we face?  Do not take me as implying that we need to ignore our community, neighbors, etc and leave them to their fate!  If the caterpillar crawled away from it’s only food source, then we certainly should put it back where it can feed.

There is beauty and joy in having overcome and survived.

Golden Quiver, 12" by 9", 2011

Butterflies are highly affected by the sun.  On a cloudy day, they will sit in their cage with their wings closed and practically hibernate.  When the sun comes out, they fly around.  The warmth and light invigorate them. View more butterflies in my gallery.

In a few of my paintings in patterns in flight:  Passion Letter, Malachite Lustre, Wandering Ochre, and one in-progress work.  I play with this translucent idea of light, experimenting with the difference between the effect of the light on one wing that is in-between the light source and the viewer and the other wing that reflects the light falling on it.  This dichotomy of how the light affects my subject interests me on both a technical and theoretical levels.  Technically, it is interesting to experiment with the craft of creating different textures, subtly and simultaneously with creating a fading affect with the wings.  On the other hand, I see potential in relating with a subject that is perceived more fully as the surface and translucency of the matter is conveyed.  While the light is a separate entity from the wing which is molded by it, light merges with the wing that it shines through.

When looking at stained glass we have this same affect.  On the outside of the building, glass is separate from the light and is seen by the light.  When we are inside the building looking at the colored glass, the light appears as a part of the glass.  However, this changes depending on whether you are inside or outside of the building.  With leaves and butterfly wings, you can have both affects in the same scene.

This Friday I will give a presentation about my Patterns in Flight series that is currently on display at Asbury University. Along with me, artist, Joel Klepac, will be talking about his work which is also on display. Current faculty will also talk about their work in the Faculty Exhibit.

Asbury University Artist Talk 2011
Friday, March 4, 5:30pm
McCreless Fine Arts Building, Rm 203
RSVP by March 2 to fmontgomery@asbury.edu

Dinner will be catered and door prizes will be given away. Donations will be accepted from non-students.

For more information about the current show visit the Patterns in Flight at Asbury announcement on my blog or the Patterns in Flight press release on the Asbury University web site.

Send me an email if you are in the area and plan to attend, so I can look out for you.

Were you influenced by someone special (other artist(s), teachers, a family member, friend, etc.)?
My father, Allen Steely, has always been interested in photography as a hobby and he influenced me by seeing and pointing out the beauty in the world around me.  In college, my painting professor, Kevin Sparks, greatly influenced how I look at painting and communicate through metaphor.  I have been influenced by a variety of great artists from the past including and not limited to the following: Caspar David Friedrich, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Kathe Kollwitz, Lucian Freud.   Recently I have been influenced by local Indiana artists Caroline Mecklin and Jim Gerard.

What do you generally try to achieve with your art?
Through painting and drawing, I attempt to create subtle metaphors layer by layer in order that I might achieve a greater understanding of the natural world.  I work with natural objects juxtaposed with transitions in time. I try to walk the line between abstraction and realism and create a composition that speaks to a viewer on several levels.

What were you trying to communicate with the piece Black & White Herd?
The current work begins with butterflies as a reference point and then takes flight into an examination of speed, pattern, and the imagination.

Do you feel you were successful?
Yes, to some extent.  I am always looking ways to improve, and better visually present, and communicate.

What medium or media do you prefer and why?
I prefer oils, because I am interested in how the process parallels my thought process.  Also, I like the way that the finished oil painting looks.  I enjoy the depth and variation of colors, tones, and light.  I recently have been interested in using watercolor focusing on the transparency of the colors.  I also enjoy working in black and white charcoal, conte, and digital photography.

How would you describe your artistic process?
For this past series:  I carefully consider my subject matter and different implications that the viewer might generate when they encounter the subject matter.  Then I decide on a composition that is dynamic.  I pick a canvas shape and size that will enhance the dynamic, moving, living nature of the piece.  Then, I begin to block out the basic shapes of the butterfly wings so that they open or close.  I decide which wings I want to hide during the opening and closing process.  I begin by looking at an actual butterfly (or an image I took with my camera (I prefer not to use the camera, but with butterflies, I sometimes have to in order to figure out the patterns on the wings).  Then I put away the picture and develop the painting layer by layer adding a light source with shadows, and developing the colors so that the painting is unified.  I try to keep the initial ideas of time, motion, life, struggle, overcoming, etc. in front of me during the process so that I do not become lost in the process.

Has your art changed substantially during your career? If so, how?
The unifying theme of my major series has been animation and an interest in the metaphysical ideas of speed and time as seen in joints of bones, flowers, and butterflies.  (I call my paintings “dynamic still life”) As I move ahead, I intend to keep that theme, but am open to other ideas as I grow as an artist.

My alma mater, Asbury University (formerly Asbury College) has asked me to show my butterfly series, Patterns in Flight. The show will be on view from January 15 until March 25. The twelve-piece series is located in the Kenyon Room of the Morrison-Kenyon Student Center.

The hours of the center are:
Mon-Thu. 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 a.m.
Fri. 7:30 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Sat. 10 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Sun. 1:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.

I have also been asked to give a presentation about my series to faculty, students and the public on Friday, March 4. The location has yet to be announced. Please contact me for the specific location and time.

Patterns in Flight
January 15 – March 25, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011 – Series presentation and discussion
Morrison-Kenyon Student Center
Asbury University
1 Macklem Dr.
Wilmore, Kentucky 40390

Patterns in Flight is a twelve-piece oil painting series that provokes thoughts on time, refined beauty, and overcoming struggles. It contains a variety of butterfly species: painted ladies, a blue morpho, malachites, a citris swallowtail, postmans, a variable cracker and a zebra longwing.

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Rachel Steely (James) has always been drawn to natural, organic objects and chooses to portray them with oil on textured surfaces. Often, she presents her subject in “dynamic still life” with a shift of time through movement or growth-decay. Steely is originally from the rust-belt city of Rockford, Illinois. She left the manufacturing town to study fine art at Asbury College and find inspiration among the rolling hills and forests of rural Kentucky. Although consistently representational, she strives to create subtlety layered visual and philosophical metaphors. In 2005, Steely returned to the country’s heartland where she is active in the local art community of Indianapolis, Indiana. Next to oil painting, her greatest passion is helping others appreciate art by teaching private classes. She leads and inspires students of all ages from her studio.

Early this summer, I was approached by the Arts Council of Indianapolis to produce six works similar to my Patterns In Flight butterfly series for their 2010 ARTI awards. The ARTI Awards are presented annually to celebrate and commemorate the outstanding support of the arts in our community. This year five ARTI awards are being presented to businesses and individuals this Friday at the Start With Art event. To attend Start With Art, register at the Arts Council of Indianapolis’ website. The event is from 11:30 am – 1:30 pm on Friday, September 3, 2010 at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown. Individual tickets are $60.

The six works commissioned by Arts Council of Indianapolis include:

• Dusk, Oil on canvas, 14″ x 14″
  
• Wandering Ochre, Oil on canvas, 8″ x 12″
  
• Summer Flight, Oil on canvas, 12″ x 9″
  
• Long Wing, Long Life, Oil on canvas, 14″ x 14″
  
• Appear, Disappear, Oil on canvas, 10″ x 10″
  

For a larger version of these paintings, visit the entire series, Patterns in Flight, in my portfolio. Two paintings, Long Wing, Long Life and Dusk, are hung diagonal.

If you were unable to make it in August, you have another chance to view the Patterns in Flight butterfly paintings art show. This Friday the butterfly series, Patterns in Flight, will be on display at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage. The series opening will be September 3, 2010 at 6pm-10pm during the IDADA’s August First Friday and the series will show through September 25. Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is located at 1125 Brookside Ave #C7 Indianapolis, Indiana.

If you cannot make it to the opening, Wug’s gallery hours are 12-4pm Friday and Saturday or by appointment. To make an appointment, call Wug Laku at 317-270-8258.

From the gallery owner:

This exhibit is a spectacular display of freedom in motion. Spend enough time in the room with these paintings and you’ll feel the air begin to vibrate and move about you. Although the nominal subject is butterflies, the real subject of these paintings is how powerfully color, line and composition can combine into patterns to create a vibrant, dynamic, even explosive viewing experience, thereby introducing us to a new experience of our everyday world.

The painting series is about journeys: the journey of each butterfly, but also my journey. Patterns in Flight provokes thoughts on time, refined beauty, and overcoming struggles. It contains a variety of butterfly species: painted ladies, a blue morpho, malachites, a citris swallowtail, postmans, a variable cracker and a zebra longwing.

RVSP today at the Facebook event: Patterns in Flight at Wug Laku’s

There are times when one looks back in time and remembers glimpses of what came before.  Visually, one’s eyes are isolated to perceiving what is now, however through images, pieces of time can be superimposed.  Time and animation are integral elements in my dynamic still life paintings.  During their lives, butterflies are creatures that themselves undergo great change.  They start as insects bound to the earth and transform into wonders of flight.

In these paintings, the simplified patterns of wings, closely cropped, tend to eclipse the creaturely nature of each butterfly.  Diagonal orientation of some canvases adds to the energy of the image.  This position breaks convention and presents a shape that can be referential to transition.

The details of how wings open: the way that sometimes light falls on the wings creating a translucent glow, reminiscent of stained glass, and how the patterns foreshorten as the wings open, add to the sense of movement, and at times rhythm, in the paintings.

A continuous and ‘unlimited’ conversation is encouraged by the use of short poetic titles.  These names can be understood as word plays on the butterfly’s name, but can also relate to time, refined beauty, and challenges overcome.

Patterns in Flight.  Patterns of movement, color, and light. Sometimes a pattern manifests where no pattern exists; patterns are implied but not actualized.  These paintings are not static butterflies, collected and mounted, but elusive creatures in flight.