Butterfly Initiative

2/23/2005

The Irvine Fine Arts Center is proud to be a satellite location to display artwork created for the Butterfly Initiative. Butterfly sculptures created by talented artists will be here through March 3rd, and will then be auctioned at a special event on March 4th at Roger’s Gardens in Newport Beach. Tickets are $100, available on the web site, www.butterflyinitiative.org.

Artists whose work is at the Fine Arts Center are Tony Hawk, Peter Shire, Nick Hernandez, Matt May, Chris King, Lauren Valantine, Carla Chun, Chiz Dequeiroz, Susie Munger, Wendy Chang Wu, Lee Robinson, Debbie Kupinsky, Craig Clifford, Manuel Bennett and Paul Gardner. Additional items from artists Janet Inez Adams whose butterfly necklaces and Roger Camp’s signed prints from his butterfly book are just some of the items that will be for sale in the Art Center Store. The Art Center store always has unique artist-made items such as jewelry, ceramics, hand-blown glass, and original sculpture for sale.  The Art Center Store is open every day during normal business hours. We feature new artists every quarter so there is always something new!

The Butterfly Initiative unites communities in support of creativity through projects that have a positive and lasting impact on the future of Orange County. This project is the first launch of an endowment to fund arts and science education in the county.

To support this goal, more than 50 local artists have created a unique collection of large-scale butterfly sculptures that will be at Roger’s Gardens through March 31st.

In addition, participating OC cities have been working on their own creations, which will be placed in public locations. Artist Mark Leysen created the City of Irvine’s butterfly, which is featured in front of the Fine Arts Center. It is titled, “Metamorphosis”, which depicts three luminaries from the work of science and art; Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Pablo Picasso. Each figure symbolizes the significant changes made in the world’s perception of space and color.

More information about the Butterfly Initiative can be found on the official web site (www.butterflyinitiative.org).

Tony Hawk

Matt May

Peter Shire

Lee A. Robinson

Manuel Bennett

Chiz Dequeiroz