Rain and Paper Angels

I was awakened a couple of nights ago by the sound of rain. It took a few minutes to register, as the first spring rain always does... welcome music not heard in three or four months.

This bit of spring is just a tease as winter is scheduled to return from her brief hiatus tomorrow. Now if only those promised thunderstorms would materialize before day's end...

~~~

The above photo is of Mariposa Lily, the first in a series. She's destined to fly off to Prospect, Nova Scotia where she will eventually be pressed into service as part of Lani's Guardian Angel swap. Lani is collecting Paper Puppet Angels to serve as Guardian Angels for those in need of a little uplifting.

Mariposa is created almost completely of paper. Her body is a collage of spring flowers. Her 'petal' wings are made using water color washed paper towel that has been brushed with a little sparkle and some gel medium to make it sturdy yet flexible for sculpting. Reclaimed silk fibers are spun across her wings and body to trail on the breezes. She rests on a lightweight stick, in keeping with her puppet status and enabling her flight about the room as in the poem that inspired her creation in the first place:

the letter from mariposa

the butterfly girl
has learned the secret
of sustained flight
even in daylight
because she got a message
not exactly in a bottle
from a far away place
named mariposa
..
the butterfly girl
remembers her chrysalis
remembers the grey days
of winter
sometimes warmed by a sun
she could not see
..
so she opened the letter
ivory white envelope
trimmed in gold and silver
and when she opened it
the card unfolded like a papilion
and flew about the room
..
the butterfly girl
was sad
because she worried that her beautiful toy
would last only a year
and in fact
she worried about it
for several years
and yet
she and the fragile
beautiful things
endured
..
the butterfly girl is older now
and her face has learned smile wrinkles
and she does nothing to hide them
for she earned every smile
ever to cross her face
and when she is sad
she just goes back into her room
where the eternal spirit of the butterfly
cascades up and down the walls . . .

~William C. Burns, Jr.

Lovely, yes?

~~~

Here are some close-up photos of her wings in an effort to show their translucence:






I hope she will give someone 'smile wrinkles'.

~~~

Soon the spring rains will be here for real, and Mariposa lilies will fill the garden.