Moths are often associated with transformation and personal growth, and looking back, that feels especially fitting for Cecropia.
This was the piece I created just after finishing my Death's Head Hawkmoth. At the time, change and growth seemed to be a theme woven through so much of my life, especially through my relationship with art.
I had spent months feeling as though life was pulling me in a dozen different directions. There were changes happening all around me. Not all of them were bad, but they were changes nonetheless, and somewhere along the way, they disrupted the rhythm I had built around creating.
I simply didn't have the energy or mental capacity to give to my craft.
Eventually, I found myself deep in a severe artistic burnout. My soul felt exhausted. The creative spark that had once felt so natural seemed to be fading, leaving only a few dim embers behind.
But embers have a way of coming back to life.
After creating Death's Head Hawkmoth, I began finding little moments where I could create more freely again. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, I began to feel myself waking from that deep creative hibernation. I wasn't suddenly back to where I had been, but I was creating. I was feeling something again. And those small moments mattered.
Cecropia became part of that return.
The Cecropia moth is North America's largest native moth, and it is an absolutely stunning creature. Its warm, earthy coloring, intricate patterns, and distinctive markings make it a beautiful reminder that there is so much wonder hiding in the natural world.
There is something fitting about creating art featuring a creature associated with transformation during a time when I was going through so much of my own.
Sometimes growth doesn't look like becoming something entirely new. Sometimes it looks like slowly finding your way back to yourself.
And sometimes, all it takes is a tiny ember of inspiration to remind you that the fire isn't gone after all.
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