The “Ugly Butterfly” series of short films is where I explore human emotions that are as complex as the character itself is raw.

I love playing with the ugly butterfly because it’s actively trying to wrestle with its own mind. I find it hilarious, sad and compelling.  At odds with the world and its Self.  It has self-knowledge to a cumbersome degree for a puppet.  It knows it’s poorly-made.  It knows its stop-motion movements are embarrassingly lo-tech.

But it has fight, damn it.

These films share the same motivational force as my touchy-feely series of paintings.  There’s something about the crudity in both cases – whether painted socks or an odd creature that doesn’t really look like a butterfly at all perhaps because it was sewn together under the duress of an institutional craft day.  This crudity, this childlike simplicity drives me (allows me?) to the explore a darker side of life with humour and compassion.