In tribute to many of the women who connected through Airing Out the "Dirty" Laundry, Andrea painted and printed Balsa Butterflies to honor and appreciate the personal connections with the women who sustained her and supported the project with their whole hearts. Andrea's limited edition art poster includes beautiful photos of each painted and printed butterfly panel, the names of each person, and the names of each of the butterflies.
 
Additional poster text:
“You are part butterfly,” Grandma Motil used to say. While I felt the warmth of her words as a child, I didn’t realize at the time that she was actually sharing a part of our Czech family history in that our name motyl, means butterfly, a symbol of growth, transformation, and renewal.
Each butterfly is painted on a wood panel. Spanish for raft, balsa is a strong, soft, flexible, fast-growing tree, considered a “nurse tree” for how it protects the trees that surround it in the humid rainforests of South and Central America. 
The panels are linked through the repeated pattern of printed growth rings. Growth rings serve as indicators of a tree’s age and experience during each year of a tree’s life. 
Each butterfly honors one of many women and nonbinary people who have loved, challenged, healed, and stood next to me and each other in community. 
Together we feel seen.
We are all part butterfly.
 
Poster design by: Karen Spears