"Dali Greets the World"

[Emily R Echols]

I found this quote in a book compiled and edited by Joseph Head and S.L.
Cranston:
		[The following estract from an article "Dali Greets the
		World" by Ben Martin appeared in teh N.Y. Herald Tribune's
		magazine Today's Living for January 24, 1960, being a
		report of an interview with this famous artist:]
	
	[Dali stated]:  "If you will study the entire series of cards [he
had painted] you will find one theme runs through most almost all--the
butterfly.  The butterfly is not present only because it is in iteself a
thing of beauty.  It is present because to one of the greatest Spanish
mystics, St. Theresa of Avila, the butterfly was the symbol of the soul.
The ugly, ungainly caterpillar, our body, enters a form of the grave, the
cocoon.  Out of this death emerges the butterfly--beautiful, free, no
longer earthbound.  To me, as to St. Theresa, the butterfly is the soul of
man."

I have found nature to provide many examples and reflections of
everlasting life and I am so happy to have come across this beautiful
description of one of the most inspiring of metamorphoses. Thank you for
your interest. --Emily

 
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