Mae Runions

Wings of the Beloved

Five Banners, 1989

These banners were first shown at two exhibitions: Gateway Theatre stairway atrium, June 1989 and at the Lookout Gallery, Regent College, January, 1990.

They were dedicated to honoring the memory of my late husband Ernest Runions, recently deceased at that time. The butterfly has long been culturally and religiously a universal symbol of the soul departing from the restricting cocoon of this life. It is a comforting image of hope for life beyond suffering and death.

Insect designs have always been fascinating to me ever since I picked potato bugs for my father as a small child. Why do I still find them so compelling? Maybe it’s that they contain infinite beauty in a format I can grasp – small enough to hold in my hand. They are a symbol of beauty – beauty summarized, a small expression of some aspect of God. The butterfly does so effortlessly what I try to do in my banners – it hints at joy. Sometimes I see something that makes my hear sing – that’s what I want to do for the viewer. That’s what butterflies do for me.

My life would be drab strips of cloth

without the celestial threads I gather from the angel’s wings

Those wings brush me from time to time with grace

yet I think they are butterflies,

that he has touched me with the love of God in the old way

When I wake I have fresh gold to weave again.