The mosaic on these pieces is made with eco-friendly, sustainably-farmed butterfly wings. The butterflies I use are farmed in third-world and developing countries; after the butterflies die, the farmers collect and sell the insects instead of poaching them or logging the valuable rainforest, which makes my pieces eco-friendly. I “acrylicalize” each butterfly wing to structurally reinforce it and adhere it to the background surface.

Two of the species I often use in my artworks, the Blue Morpho and the Madagascan Sunset Moth, were endangered species before the butterfly farms stabilized and replenished their populations—so they are no longer endangered, thanks to the insect-farming initiative!

The farms are in Peru, Brazil, Madagascar, the Central African Republic, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, and Colombia.