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Photos: Making the Prototype

As detailed in the previous post, here are some images of the making of the first butterfly protoype at the Humankind workshop in Philadelphia. Thanks again to Kate and Joel from Humankind, along with Charles P. Connelly, Jr. of Skycraper and everyone at Bermco for all your hard work – and all the work that [...]

Philadelphia Freedom – Making the Prototypes

August 20: I arrive at Humankind in Philly to work with Kate and Joel. Kate and I will be finishing the butterfly patterns in foam and then wax and then they will be laying them up in epoxy resin around the steel, which was constructed by Bermco Steel and overseen by  Charles at Skyscraper. We [...]

Step Two: Do a Lot of Bad Drawings

“This piece lingers in a border space, something that is real and yet still feels like you are only seeing it and then finishing it or making it real in your head. Like a piece of poetry made real, crystallizing for a minute.” I began drawing butterflies about six years ago. They just started popping [...]

The Plan

Preliminary drawing by Kathleen Griffin “An image in time, an experience, a moment that flickers so brightly that it cannot last.”   The Plan “The Butterflies of Memory” is a temporary public sculpture on the site of the collapsed Smallpox Hospital Ruins on Roosevelt Island in Manhattan. Seventeen giant gold butterflies, each thirteen feet in [...]

Support “Butterflies” during Couture Fashion Week

This Weekend, Black Tie International Magazine hosts a viewing of Butterflies of Memory during Couture Fashion Week at the Waldorf Astoria. Invite/RSVP information below!   Friends of Black Tie You are invited to a special viewing at the Waldorf Astoria Black Tie International Magazine Exhibit 3rd floor, Luxury Showcase during Couture Fashion Week. September 15,16,17 2 PM [...]

Photos: The First Two Butterfly Wings

The wings in the workshop in Philadelphia, where they were fabricated. These are the first wings to be produced and serve as a prototype for the rest of the fabrication.

Preliminary 3D Rendering

A 3D rendering of “Butterflies of Memory”, based on the initial drawn concept.

The Ruins

Here’s how it starts: It’s February 2009. I’m driving down the FDR for the billionth time in my life, feeling sad and overwhelmed. I’m broke and living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Astoria, using my living room as a studio. I had come two months before to New York with a plan, and with [...]