"Parasite"

After researching for a little while different paintings of contemporary art I can across one that particularly caught my attention. It was a contemporary painting by a young English artist Antony Micallef. His painting, "Parasite", caught my attention because of the unusual combination he chose for his work. Viewing the piece from a far distance it looks like a dark butterfly that has extravagant detail incorporated in it. After I enlarged the photo of the painting I realized that that detail was grayish bodies that were arranged to make the picture as a whole look like a butterfly. This puzzled me because it did not really make sense how you could incorporate such two different things into one piece.
When most people think about butterflies most would suggest that they get a warm spring-like feeling. Having these gray dark bodies make up the structure of the body throws everything off for me. It makes me wonder if the artist is trying to present a idea that although a butterfly is seen as good on the outside who knows what its thoughts are on the inside. Micallef created a brilliant piece that made me really think about the underlying message that he was trying to convey to his viewers. The piece way placed in the foyer of the Royal Academy. Micallef's work was also shown in exhibits around California where many well known stars purchased his work for large price tags. The works that make you consider what the artist was thinking are the works that make art truly amazing.