Local artist’s latest butterfly-themed project involves area colleagues

Carolyn Hardy was one of the roughly 40 artists involved in a project organized by Andrea Niven.

A local artist invited about 40 of her colleagues out to help her with a project that will eventually be displayed at the Migration Festival in Kingsville.

Andrea Niven from Bearfoot Studios was supported by a number of fellow artists at the AMA Sportsmens Association in a Monarch butterfly-themed project that will be unveiled Oct. 17. She describes it as “a community and collaborative mural” with the Sept. 15 event seeing area artists create paintings of butterflies or natural scenes in their own styles with those square paintings to go around a larger painting that Niven created.

“This has been a year-long project for me,” said Niven. 

Niven has gone to schools, retirement homes, and Point Pelee National Park as part of the creation of her mural. She had pictures of butterflies coloured and sayings written on the back as part of the process.

The idea came after a trip to Mexico, where she visited a Monarch butterfly habitat and saw them by the thousands.

“It was everything we wanted it to be,” she said. 

Niven said she is working with the Mexican consulate to try and find a permanent home for the mural in Leamington.

Artists came to Amherstburg last Tuesday night from all over the area. There were many from Amherstburg, but others came in from across Essex County and Windsor. 

“These people are all artists I know,” she said. “It’s all about working together. I thought it was important to come together and paint at the same time.”

Niven added: “It’s a celebration of our differences and embracing our differences.” She said it is about one world with the Monarch butterfly being common to both Canada and Mexico, with the latter country seeing the Monarch butterfly be “a huge part of their culture.”

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