Obsidian Butterfly

  • Mikea Knopp
  • Acrylic
  • Quake Studio
  • Sitz Industries
  • 36x48
  • The Obsidian Butterfly. She is the guardian and guide of those who have left this realm - fiercely watching over women and children: those lost in childbirth, those taken in infancy, those who died at the hands of others’ atrocities. She meets each soul as they truly are. She invites us to see beyond the illusion of death - the true essence of who we are never dies, but moves into a new state of existence. I call her Mama Itza. She began appearing to me in late 2022 - never all at once, but in pieces: a wing, her face moving between goddess, skeleton, and jaguar - beautiful and bare, shifting from one into the next. When I asked what she needed, she said: “Paint me so others can see who I really am. The depictions of me were used to frighten those bringing destruction to our home”. My invitation to you is not to meet the mythology or stories. It is to stand here, open, and discover how she meets you.

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