...and today it is a blast from the past. In celebration of Santiago Ramón y Cajal's birthday I decided to feature one of my oversized drawings from my graduate studies at UCDavis: Butterflies in Her Stomach. For Cajal, the father of Modern Neuroscience, the intricate components of neurons and nervous tissues were “the mysterious butterflies of the soul… whose beating of wings may one day reveal to us the secrets of the mind.” The full quote is featured below.
Like the entomologist in search of colorful butterflies, my attention has chased in the gardens of the grey matter cells with delicate and elegant shapes, the mysterious butterflies of the soul, whose beating of wings may one day reveal to us the secrets of the mind.
- Santiago Ramón y Cajal
Dawn Hunter, Butterflies in Her Stomach, charcoal and conte on paper, 120" x 150"
Dawn Hunter, detail, Butterflies in Her Stomach
Dawn Hunter in front of artwork in her studio, UCDavis, 1992