Butterfly Dancing

Six-sided stars float inside a green and yellow hexagon to center a bright nierika, or votive beadwork 'painting' by Kupihaute. Dancing butterflies surround the image in his composition, which takes the shape of a flower with five wide petals.

The artisan, who writes fluently in the Huichol, Nahuatl, Spanish and English languages, talks about this work in his own words. 'This nierika/mirror is showing the children of the community in their initiation dance around the peyote-fire. In the ecstasy of their transformation, they become butterflies flying to Wirikuta, the peyote fields in the desert, listening to the thousand-year-old voices of our ancestors. They are singing and dancing, giving new life to their feet drawing arcane symbols on the ground, representing our vital path in the new annual cycle of all the people in the community.'

The intricate images are formed with tiny seed beads. Kupihuate patiently places them one at a time with a needle made of abalone shell onto a huanacaxtle wood backing. Beeswax is used instead of glue.

The process is totally spontaneous, with no previous sketch or design. It is guided by the artist's unconscious to tell the stories that remain in our collective ancestral memory. He signs his work with the symbol of a butterfly on the reverse side of the nierika.