Transformations
For Magic Valley Art & Soul 2025, I have submitted my piece, "transformations", a series of transforming artwork using lenticular lenses to showcase the necessary precursor environments that are necessary for radical change.
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As the viewers pivot themselves to view the images shift from one to the other, I ask them to consider a point in their lifetime (or perhaps it's happening now!) when they have felt a tremendous amount of pressure, fire, or as though their insides are completing melting away - to give way to something so startlingly beautiful as a fluttering butterfly, or a glittering raw diamond.
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Below you'll find the description and thought processes behind each piece in this series. For inquires, or to order smaller versions (5"x5"), please send me an email at 5petalsart@gmail.com or text me at +1-646-543-8365.
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Mixed Media; Lenticular Lenses; Interlaced Prints of Originals (oil painting); 20"x20" x 3
-Cheryl Wu, MD
• Caterpillar • Butterfly •
This is the Malay Lacewing caterpillar/butterfly. I love the colors of this beautiful butterfly, and wanted to showcase a creature a bit different from the usual Monarchs we often see here in North America. This Malay Lacewing is found in Southeast Asia, from Singapore to Indonesia to the Philippines. I love that the little caterpillar (not to size in the piece, obviously) has these tiny spikes (called coronal spines) just to F with its natural predators. It certainly is small but mighty! (in fact, for this little guy, his swords are for sure mightier than the pen!) Even the butterfly, as beautiful and delicate as it looks, has "sawtooth-shaped wings". To me, I see the enduring strength and beauty within this little insect.
​Scientists still aren't exactly sure how the complete process of metamorphosis occurs inside a chrysalis, though we do know that a caterpillar basically secretes enzymes to digest itself into an amorphous soup, then forms tiny groups of cells called imaginal discs that will eventually turn into the various parts of a butterfly. This reminds me of the differentiation process of the human fetus as it undergoes rapid development of its various organs. But this rebirth occurs in the middle of a caterpillar-butterfly life cycle, and certainly gives "reinventing oneself" new meaning! There had definitely been times in my life when I felt like I was being eaten alive on the inside - and all I wanted to do was cocoon myself so I could emerge anew yet again. How about you?
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The caterpillar's body is a blood-red/orange, and the butterfly's toothed wings are majority orange, which symbolizes new beginnings and joy. The background of both of these images is green, which symbolizes growth. This piece reminds us to take a lesson from the humble caterpillar and take the time we need for each time we grow and transform.
• Diamonds •
• Earth's Mantle •
This was a hard one for me to paint. I needed to ensure the painting was an accurate description of the precise conditions necessary to form these beautiful little perfect carbon crystals we call Diamonds.
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Debunker: many of us think that diamonds form from coal; in fact, coal and diamonds are the two branches from the same tree. If the perfect conditions are not met, carbon atoms actually turn into coal, not diamonds. I think there's a metaphor in there!
So, here's a quick geology lesson.
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The first layer of our Mother Earth is called the Crust, below that is the Mantle, which is divided into the Upper Mantle and the Lower Mantle. As we all know, the deeper we go, the hotter it gets. Then you get to the core of the Earth. The Crust and the Upper Mantle are also collectively called the Lithosphere.
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Now, this is what we need in order to form a natural, raw diamond. We need the Ocean - and becuase it's much heavier than land, the Lithosphere beneath the Ocean will move down and push under the Lithospheric layer beneath land (yes, that long, "phallic" structure pointing down in the "before" painting), thereby bringing carbon atoms (which are only found in the upper layers of the Earth's Mantle) deep into the Lower Mantle (called the Asthenosphere at this point, just so we can sound scholarly and learned), in a process called Subduction. Then, the carbon atoms get to cookin' like on the 4th of July. As the pressure and heat build, a special kind of long and skinny volcano called the Kimberlite Volcano (signified by the orange fountain you see on the lower right of the painting) forms and erupts at an extremely high speed to the surface, bringing the carbon with it. These carbon atoms must undergo high speed and an extreme drop in pressure AND temperature (ie, rapid cooling) in order to arrange into perfect diamond cubic structures (covalently bonded carbon atoms in a tetrahedral shape, then formed into 3D structures with 6 individual carbon rings - Goddess I love chemistry!), which we can then give to each other in the quest for eternal together-foreverness.
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​In any case, given such a long and hard (this is getting more and more inappropriate, and I really apologize) process, it's easy to see that something as glitteringly beautiful as diamonds really don't come by easily (well at least in nature). So next time, when you feel like you are under nothing but high pressure and heat, think of how you'll be able to shine bright like a diamond very, very soon.
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Disclaimer: if you are a geologist, and you see any inaccurate or misleading information in any way, please, please drop me a line! 5petalsart@gmail.com
• Phoenix Rising •
This is the last piece in the series, and we have progressed from the biological, the chemical, and now to the mythical. The Phoenix is a mythological creature believed in some cultures to live either 500-540 years, or 1,461 years! (the latter is the Egyptian astronomy Sophic Year) Legend has it that when a Phoenix nears the end of a lifetime, it spontaneously combusts into a blaze of glorious fire, and from its ashes will rise as a brand new Phoenix. This new bird then carries its egg to the Sun Temple in Heliopolis, an ancient city of Egypt.
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​As you can see, to soar and fly like a beautiful Phoenix, we must undergo a tremendous process of fire, burning, and rebirth. Oftentimes, we feel the heat, and it feels like there is no end in sight - whether it's at work, at home, or somewhere else. But have faith that at the end of this grueling process, we will emerge a majestic bird, the likes of which are unrivaled, defying death itself. I also see the pilgramage to the Sun Temple in Heliopolis, the city of the Sun, as a renewed vow of aiming toward our true Purpose. How about for you?
