Walk into Focus on Tuesday or Thursday and you will be greeted by a very special human. I like to think all of our desk people are special, and they are, but i'm biased here because Lisa is my sister and best friend. Life changes found her in need of some change and so she did: rearranging her busy schedule as a therapist, artist and single mom of three boys to work at Focus, running the front desk, working with Jency and making herself available for anyone that just needs to talk. Starting next month you will be able to book private one-on-one therapy sessions.
You may have noticed her simplistically brilliant drawing "The Butterfly Mender" outside of Studio B. While she leaves her art up for interpretation, to me, it is a self portrait - as a licensed therapist she helps mend the wings of so many dreamers (like me). And if you ever visit her flour town home and walk into the wonderland that is her backyard you might notice three pigs, three dogs, bee hives, foxes and yes....butterflies that she helps hatch every year. This is her very short story on this process and a video that documents two of her butterflies freshly transformed from caterpillars flapping their wings for the very first time.
ABOUT THE BUTTERFLIES - By Lisa H.
They are collected as eggs, so small so very small tucked under the leaves of Asclepias incarnata…or as most know: the milkweed plant. Only on this plant does the Monarch butterfly ay her eggs.
I fill my garden with them so they will come, and they have dwindled each year, sadly. They are becoming endangered; hence, I began harvesting eggs when I could find them; they are truly precious! Last summer I had none. The year before, I had dozens.This summer was a very dark one for me. For months, I could find very little joy in life. Yet one early morning in August, I saw my first and only monarch visit my garden, and a little light switched on in my soul.
I ran to the milkweed and searched under every leaf. I found an egg, then three more…I literally cried. What a gift, and how symbolic, right?
The process of caring for an egg and then caterpillars takes work! First, the egg needs to stay on the milkweed leaf and not be moved…it is so fragile. The leaf then must remain moist and not dry out, or the egg will die. So I transport the egg on its leaf bed to a damp paper towel and in a glass Pyrex dish and cover it with a mesh cloth. It takes about four days for the egg to hatch.
The egg turns from white to dark grey to almost black…and then, just like that…it hatches and begins eating milkweed immediately.
Milkweed is literally the only thing a monarch caterpillar can eat! So, eat it does. For about 11-14 days, it eats and eats and eats….200 times its weight or almost 200 leaves before it is ready to enclose to the chrysalis stage. So each morning, I would go to the garden and collect branches of milkweed for these beautiful creatures to munch away, day after day. All of a sudden, like a calling..each of them make their way to the top of the enclosure and find their perfect spot to transform. Once they find their spot, they are still for hours…Until...their bodies form the letter J…and they hang..suspended like that for hours more.
Then if you are lucky…you catch them transforming into magnificent chrysalis. It's magic. Nature’s magic!
They then sit once more, still to our eyes..but inside they are working so hard to create their next stage in life….and get their wings. Just like me.
So each day I watched…and each day as they transformed… so did I. On this day today…they all emerged…shaky and unsure…wings still all folded up and damp…and then…as their little wings dry…still hanging upside down…with their new legs holding strong…they start to feel brave enough to flap their wings…
For hours, they do this. Practicing flapping…and wings drying while they do…little feet still stuck in place.After about four or five hours…they are curious about these wings…and how they work. So they take tiny flights in the enclosure…and that’s when you know they are ready to be free. So I take the enclosure out to my garden..to the same place I found them as eggs, and one by one…I hold them in my hand…and watch them soar. Just like me.
This is her very short story on this process and a video that documents two of her butterflies freshly transformed from caterpillars flapping their wings for the very first time. WATCH THE MAGIC HERE!
Say hi to Lisa on Tuesdays and Thursdays or drop her an email:
lisahurwitzarts@gmail.com
