Howler’s Artist Spotlight series called “Making a Scene” is back this month featuring Costa Rican artist Daniela Vargas Winiker.

“My purpose is to combine painting, sculpture and installation, achieving interactive spaces

where the sensory experience can captivate the viewer so that they can enter my magical world,” says Daniela. “I paint butterflies as though they are a community made up of a multitude of individual beings, as a whole, together, in flocks, in flight, butterflies by day, at sunset, and

within an infinite number of scenarios of my imagination.”

Azul Brillante (Bright Blue)

Oil with silver powder varnish, 48” X 36”

The morpho butterfly has been the subject of legends and a multitude of studies, due to its particular characteristics. It is said that blue butterflies have a certain mysticism, given the popular belief that seeing one gives you luck. They are characterized by their large size and striking blue color, but they are not actually blue. It is the reflection of light on microscopic scales of the wings — a phenomenon known as structural coloration.

Esfera Espejo de Vida (Mirror of Life Sphere)

Resin powder and silver foil varnish, 25cm

We all have wings to reach different paths. The representation of the butterflies on the canvas, as well as on the sphere, allows the viewer to feel that the butterflies transcend. They leave the canvas and continue their flight towards another plane. It is about creating a sensation where the two-dimensional proposal comes to life and continuity is given to the work through the use of other materials.

La Gran Viajera — la Mariposa Monarca (The Great Traveler — the Monarch Butterfly) Oil, 20″ x 34″

Monarch butterflies represent a symbol of constant transformation, from egg to caterpillar, to chrysalis, and finally to butterfly. They are synonymous with perseverance that is reflected in the thousands of kilometers they travel until they achieve their goal.

Mariposas (Butterflies)

Series of 3 oil paintings, each 9″ x 9.5″

More than beauty, color and joy, butterflies represent life; gestation, transformation, strength and departure.