Title: Return of the Blue Dragonfly
Size: 48” x 36”
Media: Acrylic, 18k gold leaf
The symbolism of the dragonfly is similar to that of the butterfly – transformation. However the dragonfly’s transformation is even more profound as it does not just change from a nymph living under water to a beautiful dragonfly but also transforms its surroundings from being under the water to being above the water. Essentially the realm of the dragonfly changes so dramatically that it can never return to let the other water creatures know what happened.
In my painting however these borders have become deliberately undifferentiated – is the dragonfly indeed above the water or is it visiting the Koi fish below the water? Perhaps the dragonfly has returned to tell about a magnificent new world beyond the pond.
Painting sold to Marla Wright at Raye’s Benefit December 2009. I knew I had found the rightful owner when Marla showed me a photo of a blue dragonfly on her iphone – taken just a couple of months earlier in Claude Monet’s gardens in Giverny – France. Coincidence?