A huge thank you....

to Amaco for sponsoring the Butterfly contest at CHA 2009!!! My "Penance Art" piece won "Most Inspriational" and I couldn't be happier!!! How fun to create something so wonderful, and have it recognized.

I thought I'd share a couple more views of it here as well as what I wrote on the back of it.

The piece is done on an 8x10" piece of artist's canvas and then encased in a clear acrylic enclosure so that nothing get's dusty, knocked off, etc:

In my 8 nights of lights, I did a video showing how to get your Friendly Plastic thin enough to diecut using a Sizzix Originals die.  So lots of swirls were dicut and then fused to the canvas background.  While they are still warm, you can simply stick charms down into the plastic and they will adhere.

If you search my blog for copper watercolor painting, you can see how to paint the copper.  Yep, that top butterfly is copper!

I really like how Friendly Plastic will melt together when you layer one piece on top of another.  You can also move it around with a toothpick covered in vasoline (so the plastic doesn't stick to the toothpick!)

Here's a closeup of another diecut Butterfly using a Spellbinders die.  

The poem is just printed on glossy cardstock and then framed with strips of Friendly plastic melted together.

And here's what I wrote on the back of the piece:

When I visited the Children’s Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem in 2005, I had no more entered into the museum, realized the magnitude of the children lost in the holocaust as represented by the 1.5 Million flickering lights suspended 360 degrees around me, and I fell to my knees, crippled with grief over this hideous crime. I have prayed daily since that moment for Israel and for Jewish children around the world . I am inspired to create pieces like this because they cannot. Even though I am not Jewish, I write poetry that moves me to remember that moment when I fully realized what a generation before me had done. I hunt butterflies in their honor, I sing and dance because they can’t. But most of all, I pray my work will cause you to pause and remember…..

never forget, never again.

Thanks Amaco!!!