Painting Butterflies behind Bars

The Project: Painting Watercolor Butterflies

 

I knew the jail wouldn’t be comfortable, but I was still surprised by how bleak and cold it was. The walls were different shades of grey. There was little natural light, and the bulbs were harsh fluorescents. Seven women in orange jumpsuits filed into the classroom that was given over to my use. The women sat at the tables I’d set up with water, paintbrushes, and paper towels, and they looked at me expectantly. I was nervous. I’d put a lot of thought into the project I’d prepared. The participants had made the choice to wake early for the program, and I wanted them to like it.

I introduced the concept: watercolor butterflies. I provided each woman a stack of butterflies of different sizes cut from watercolor paper. Next, I explained I’d chosen butterflies for the project due to the transformative and restorative symbolism that surrounds them. Then I showed some sample butterflies and gave some basic watercolor instruction. The women listened and nodded politely. Finally, I passed out the watercolor pallets. I’d intentionally chosen large palettes with 48 vibrant colors. That was it. Their eyes lit up. And they began to paint.

 

Art as a Protective Factor

 

In the fight against sexual and domestic violence, both empowering women and offering support to victims stand as pivotal protective factors. One of the things I’m privileged to do as the Prevention, Intervention, and Education Coordinator at SafeHouse is to provide Self-Empowerment programming to incarcerated women in Shelby County, Alabama. When I visited the women residing in facilities we serve and asked them what kind of programming they would prefer, they unanimously agreed they wanted to do art. This was exciting to me because art is a known, powerful healer.

Art is proven to grant people who are incarcerated the opportunity to express themselves in ways beyond words. Art Therapy With Offenders (Liebmann, 1994) shows that art therapy allows inmates to express themselves in a manner appropriate to the facility and the outside world, that it supports efforts in improving mental health, and that it facilitates an inmate’s ability to regulate her emotions. While I am not a therapist and do not hold credentials in art therapy, I hoped that my program would bring the benefits of artistic expression to the incarcerated women I serve. This program is not merely about painting a pretty picture. It is part of a larger journey towards healing and empowerment.

 

The Statistics:

 

Many incarcerated women are victim/survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. In a study that examined the histories of women incarcerated for murder, “sixty percent of respondents reported experiencing abuse—physical, sexual, emotional, or some combination of the three—before entering prison, much of it during childhood.”

In addition, “Forty-three percent reported experiencing intimate partner violence, nearly double the rate of the general populace. Of those, 41 percent—nearly 18 percent of all respondents—said they were in prison for killing a romantic partner.“

There are dozens of studies that support the idea that, for many if not most incarcerated women, there is a direct link from the abuse they experienced to their incarceration.

 

Art in Action

 

Imagine how it must feel to be a victim/survivor who has been denied agency over her own body, then to be incarcerated, sometimes and often as a result of that abuse, and once again be denied agency. Art gives agency back. Art allows for choice and expression in an environment that takes that away.

At each facility, multiple residents commented to me that the project “felt like therapy.” They said it felt good to be doing something creative—that it helped to calm their minds. It was “good for the soul.” One woman said, “This is the most exciting thing we’ll do all month.” Another said, “It’s a joy to work with color.” At one facility, we had 25 residents working quietly on the project at the same time. Several of the women said to me, “You need to come back and do this more often. I’ve NEVER heard it this quiet in here.” One woman said, “Jail is loud. It feels so good to be able to sit in actual quiet and turn off my brain and just paint.”

This project was created for incarcerated women, but art can benefit anyone. If you would like to sit in the quiet, turn off your brain, and just paint, why don’t you join us in making your own watercolor butterflies.

 

What you’ll need:

 

• Paper butterflies cut out of watercolor paper (here are a number of free butterfly templates you can use if you’d prefer not to draw your own)
• Watercolor
• Paint brushes
• Clean water for rinsing brushes
• Paper towels or scrap paper for drying brushes and testing colors

As I told my artists, if you have a vision for your butterflies, or if you just want to play and experiment with your paints, go for it. But if you’d like some tips for achieving different effects, read on.

 

Watercolor Techniques

 

Tip 1: Prepare your butterflies

Prepare several watercolor butterflies in advance. Watercolor usually requires working in layers, allowing the entire butterfly to dry completely between each layer. I prepared seven butterflies for each women. This seemed to be plenty to keep everyone working contentedly for an hour and a half.

Tip 2: Wet-on-wet technique

Apply water to the paper first, either to just part of the butterfly, or to the entire thing. Then add the watercolor paint to the wet paper. The colors will bloom, spread, and blend more easily as they interact with the wet surface, creating soft edges and smooth transitions. You can do this with one color or several and watch how they swirl and mix together.

Tip 3: Wet-on-dry technique

Brush paint onto a dry paper surface. This technique allows for more defined edges and precise details as the paint doesn’t spread as freely as in the wet-on-wet technique. I like to use wet-on-wet for my base layer and let it dry. Then I’ll come back and add in details using the wet-on-dry technique.

Tip 4: Glazing

After allowing the first layer of paint to dry completely, apply another translucent layer on top. This builds up color intensity or changes the hue while still allowing the previous layer to show through.  I like to do this with shapes. I’ll cover the butterfly in a series of shapes, let them dry, then add more shapes on top. Again, you can do this with the same color or choose different colors to achieve a different effect.

(Note: you achieve translucency by adding more water to your paint. More paint gives you a darker color. More water makes for a lighter color.)

Tip 4: Adding details

I like to add details in lots of different ways. Sometimes I’ll look at a picture of a butterfly as a reference and paint on the details with a dark color. Other times I will use glazing to create shapes and let the negative space (or the space without paint) create the details. Sometimes I will paint a pattern of shapes and then outline them in a dark color, creating a stained glass effect. You can go for realism or you can just play. Remember, the process is as important (if not more important) than the finished product.

 

Finishing Your Project

 

You can allow your butterflies to dry and leave them flat. You can create a collage or paste them in a journal. Or you can fold up the wings on either side to create a 3-D effect. At one of the facilities I went to, each woman made some butterflies to keep, and then gave some over towards the creation of a group project. We folded the wings up of at least 50 butterflies and then glued them to a piece of poster board. The finished product was a fluttering, joyful celebration of color and movement. We hung it on the wall with pride.

For other ways to engage in some art-related self-care, check out our coloring pages.