"Nine Souls in Flight"

9 x 12 art framed to 17 x 21 Gouache on emerald silk fabric Brushed gold bamboo frame with white mat In Chinese philosophy, nine represents infinity and extremity, the number at which the countable world ends and something larger begins. In the Chinoiserie tradition, butterflies carried the soul between worlds, appearing on painted surfaces across three centuries of European decorative imagination. Nine Souls in Flight holds both. Nine distinct butterflies on emerald silk, no flowers, no branches, nothing but wing and ground. Each one is different. Nine, and everlasting.