Any 6-year-old with an Eric Carle book could tell you that caterpillars turn into butterflies. And while that’s generally true, nature has a trick up its sleeve. The caterpillar doesn’t just grow wings and slim down within its fragile little chrysalis. What happens instead is profound: The caterpillar turns to goo, and from within the liquefied caterpillar goo grows a whole new creature, the butterfly.
This transformation process, which is still actively being studied at the molecular level by scientists, captivated New Mexico painter Michael Bergt. “I just loved this idea of emerging and seeing the world differently, but also the way the caterpillar would basically dissolve until it was just DNA. And then everything was left to the coding to decide what happens next,” Bergt says from his Santa Fe studio. “For me, this was a new way of seeing my own world, which is why I developed the Chrysalis Series as a way to respond to it all.”
Flattening the Curve, color pencil on toned paper, 27 x 34"
Bergt is using the Chrysalis Series to tap into the things that have been on his mind lately—the pandemic, the polarized American political system, the evolution of the human species, the state of the environment—and then come at it all from a new angle. “History teaches us that during such times, the systems that hold societies together begin to fracture and dissolve, and what emerges can be a rearrangement of our sense of society, economic systems and visions in the arts. Metaphorically, it’s called a ‘metamorphosis,’” he writes about the series. “In a metamorphosis, the caterpillar must surround itself with a chrysalis to totally dissolve into its essential DNA state—the primordial ooze, then rearrange itself and emerge as a butterfly. ‘Psyche,’ in Greek means butterfly, because the Greeks believed that the psyche must dissolve, to reemerge in a new state. When we dissolve, we are left with only the basic elements of our DNA, the traces of our collective history. We reassemble those building blocks to meet the demands of a new role in the environment.”
Metamorphosis of Psyche, color pencil, gouache and gold leaf, 25 x 19"
Chrysalis III, egg tempera and gold leaf, 17 x 13"
He continues, “In my work, I’m pointing toward this process, an understanding of the evolution being asked of us from this collective ‘pause.’ The disruptions we see in our society and economies while we are asked to isolate. Is this an opportunity to emerge in a new state, or just to witness our descent into a primordial ooze? Perhaps the arts can say something about this…”
The painter will be showing works from the series at a new show now open at Nüart Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Works include Metamorphosis of Psyche, showing a transformed butterfly and a nude figure; Chrysalis III, an egg tempera work with shimmering gold leaf showing a human figure emerging from a chrysalis; and Flattening the Curve, a work that calls back to Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa while also touching on the pandemic and its rolling curve of cases through the summer and fall.
Metamorphosis, color pencil and gouache, 22½ x 19"
For the artist, these new works came to him during an intense period of creation, one that has been increasingly rewarding to him and his studio. “I haven’t been this excited or prolific in a long time,” he says. “So many times as an artist you work on things that don’t address larger ideas, or maybe there’s just nothing to focus on. But we’re living in a changed time, and these ideas I’m painting are so juicy and amazing. There’s so much there to think about it and paint. I’m loving it.” —
Nüart Gallery
670 Canyon Road • Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 988-3888 • www.nuartgallery.com
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