Aurelian Gold
The word Aurelian is the archaic word that was used for a lepidopterist, a scientist who studies butterflies and moths. The root of Aurelian is aurum which means gold, when a butterfly is emerging out of the chrysalis it is said that it emits a warm golden light and this is why the word Aurelian was used.
This is a very personal piece of work, it is photo decal of my daughter which I took on the beach on Inisheer. I took her and her friend Rachel over to the island for a photo shoot last summer, they are both photographers. Inisheer holds a lot of emotion for me. When my daughter was around 10, I took her camping here for the first time, it was just the two of us, It was here that she revealed how she loved the fact that I was doing something just with her, having a disabled brother took a lot of my care time and it was here that I realised I needed to share more time with her. This experience transformed our relationship. My daughter has always loved butterflies and I wanted to bring to light the fact that 18 percent of Irish butterflies are on the endangered list and 15 percent are on the near threatened list. The small blue butterfly is on the critical list. With this piece I have worked on the technical side to create a very light glass piece that could be hung on this gallery wall. So I have used the lightest glass that is 2 mm and used a coloured photographic film for the back ground.
