Artist butterflies patients up

Elia Powers

Dressed in a two-piece hospital gown, 7-year-old Kayla Bounlangsy

stood in the makeshift art studio at Children’s Hospital of Orange

County, squirting glitter onto a plastic butterfly.

Staying in a vertical position can be difficult for Kayla, who is

being treated for a muscle-weakening disease called dermatomyositis.

But during a coloring project on Wednesday, she showed no signs of

fatigue.

“She has been doing art every morning,” said Kayla’s mother, Jayna

Raub, who brought the family to Orange from Arizona this week. “This

is the bright part of her day.”

That could be the unofficial motto of the Butterfly Initiative, a

new community program spearheaded by the KOCE-TV Foundation. The

county-wide initiative is designed to build community and foster

artistic expression, particularly among area youth.

Kayla and a group of young hospital patients participated in the

event by decorating more than 200 butterflies. The finished products

are scheduled to go on display starting next month at Roger’s

Gardens, a home and gardens center in Corona del Mar.

Laguna Niguel artist Zoey Stevens donated his time to the event,

helping children decorate the smaller butterflies and then taking his

brush to a 5-foot-tall aluminum butterfly -- a gift from Roger’s

Gardens that will remain in the Children’s Hospital of Orange County

lobby.

Stevens, an often-commissioned celebrity artist and scenic art

director, is one of several prominent Orange County artists who has

painted butterflies as part of the project’s first phase.

Santa Ana-based custom designers Carol Marsh and Robert Fairchild

produced the butterfly designs, some of which were unveiled at

Wednesday’s hospital event.

The children’s butterflies will be placed on Dave Bush Island,

which welcomes visitors to Roger’s Gardens, said Starr Allumbaugh,

vice president of marketing and sales.

Another batch of butterflies, varying in size from 2 to 5 feet, is

being installed on Roger’s Gardens grounds in the next week. The

artists’ works will be on display through the end of February.

As part of the Butterfly Initiative’s “Arts and Science Legacy

Project,” Allumbaugh said her company is selling do-it-yourself

butterfly kits intended to be decorated and placed in front yards or

businesses’ shop windows.

Many larger butterfly sculptures will be auctioned off on March 4

to local art collectors. The event will be broadcast on KOCE-TV, with

much of the money going toward Orange County’s first endowment for

arts and science education. The official Butterfly Initiative kickoff

event is set for Feb. 5, which coincides with California Western

Monarch Butterfly Day.

“It’s important to raise money for the arts,” Allumbaugh said. “I

can’t image children going to school without [art classes]

available.”