McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK

Local News

Related Photos

  • KEVIN HARVISON

    BUTTERFLY
October 3, 2009

Local artist wings it during art month

By Kandra Wells

The large, colorful butterflies have perched on posts in Anita Jackson’s back yard for about a month now, like bright sentinels soaking up the late summer sunshine, sometimes floating a bit when coaxed by a gentle breeze.

But unlike real butterflies, they don’t take flight when night falls. And they stand up pretty sturdily to violent storms, even lashing winds and buckets of rainfall, Jackson has discovered.

“They did real good in the storm,” she said of the hand-made crafts she is assembling to distribute around McAlester during October, which is Art Month in Oklahoma.

Jackson is a member of the Southeastern Oklahoma Fine Arts Inc. and remembers when she first got the idea to build the large butterflies for adoption by businesses and arts patrons in McAlester.

“I had an art show in Granite, Oklahoma, during the Quartz Mountain Music Festival,” she recalled. “To advertise, they had the prisoners paint guitar cutouts. I thought, ‘how cool.’ On the way back, Robert (Stedwill) and I talked about this and came up with the idea of huge butterflies for McAlester.”

Jackson, an artist and aerobics teacher, figured the butterflies could serve several purposes: raising funds, advertising and showcasing artwork. So she took her idea to her fellow artists at the local arts guild.

“Some were enthusiastic, others maybe a little skeptical at first, but the group has rallied,” she said. In all, 22 of the artful creatures have been painted and readied for the project.

There’s the spaghetti and meatball butterfly — a fork forms the body, with the tines holding a meatball as the head — that the City of McAlester is using to promote the region at the Tulsa State Fair this week. Another is fashioned like a ballerina, complete with a pink tutu. And then there’s the one with wings forming an artist’s palette, its body painted as a paintbrush.

While much of the work was done by the various artists, Jackson and Stedwill assembled the large flying butterflies and mounted them on posts they cut, painted and readied for installation. Each stand is anchored to the ground through a combination of metal poles fastened at the bottom, and the butterflies pivot on top of the posts, turning this way and that with the brush of a hand or a gust of wind. Another friend, Steve Fox, pitched in to help cut the wood into wings for painting.

“They really are cool,” Jackson said of the larger-than-life winged insects.

She painted several herself, and others were done by a class at the McAlester High School and SOFA members. Her son, Wes Jackson, an artist in Tulsa, is even getting in on the act with his own butterfly. In addition to Anita Jackson and Stedwill, other SOFA members contributing artwork include Ted Welch, Melissa Benjamin, John Cotton, Ryan Wiley, Cecilia McMahan, Paula Anderson, Cindy Barr and Rachel Creamer.

The butterflies are being “adopted” by supporters in high-traffic areas, and each will include signage about the upcoming Romancing the Arts show planned downtown Oct. 23-24. Funds raised through the butterfly adoptions will also be used to fund the art show.

For more information, contact a SOFA member or call Jackson at 423-7378.

Text Only
Local News
Seasonal Content
Poll

A recent study of southern tornadoes has found that storm shelters did not protect them. Where do you take shelter when tornadoes threaten?

A basement or cellar
A storm shelter
A hallway or closet
Bathtub
Other
I don't take shelter
     View Results
AP Video
Beryl Makes Landfall on Florida Coast UN Blames Syrian Forces for Shelling Houla Raw Video: Gay Protest Blocked in Moscow Vatican in Chaos After Butler Arrested for Leaks Jimmy Carter Endorses Egypt's Election Results Biden Addresses West Point Graduating Class Dozens of Children Killed in New Syria Attack Raw Video: Activists Allege Massacre in Syria NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium 50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station Calif.'s Coronado Named Nation's Best Beach CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
NDN Video
Raw Video: Man Rescued From River in China Beyonce Entertains the First Family Celtics crush Sixers in Game 7 Alleged Lego Thief Faces Felony Charges Has Snooki Named Her Baby? Heat Wave Warms Holiday Weekend Inspiration for the class of 2012 Colorado College Student Shot While Trespassing Will Smith & Josh Brolin on "Men in Black 3" 80-Year-Old Skydiver's Nightmare Jump JWoww Sizzles in a Black Bikini Sliders on the Grill Cruise ship crunch Backstage With Beyonce Ultimate Creamy Potato Salad Pope's Personal Butler Under Arrest Jenny McCarthy's New Man Tyler's Classic Coleslaw Britney Spears Under X Factor Fire Flesh-Eating Bacteria Victim Hits Milestone
Parade
Magazine
Click HERE to read all your Parade favorites including Hollywood Wire, Celebrity interviews and photo galleries, Food recipes and cooking tips, Games and lots more.