1,000 artist-painted butterflies to help fight Detroit blight

It's a butterfly release of grand proportions. Literally, 1,000 of them by summer's end. Sounds pretty daunting, especially once you realize we're not talking about delicate flying monarchs, but 4- to 5-foot-wide plywood cutouts painted kaleidoscopically by Detroit artist Chazz Miller and a host of young volunteers.

Miller has dubbed his project the Papillon Effect -- papillon is French for butterfly.

"I thought Detroit needed a psychological readjustment," Miller said. "I mean, when you look at a caterpillar you would never imagine a caterpillar is going to turn into a butterfly. And when you look at Detroit, you never imagine Detroit is going to come up off its knees.

"It's a great metaphor for me to see Detroit as a butterfly -- a papillon -- to re-emerge."

The process works like this: Volunteers cut donated plywood into butterfly shapes, seal and prime them. Then Miller and volunteer artists draw designs on them with crayon so anyone with a brush -- regardless of talent -- can fill them in with psychedelic color. Miller can't seem to resist going over each one, adding details and shading.

Miller is founder and director of Public Art Workz (P.A.W.S.), and the artistic visionary who joined John George and Alicia Marion to create Artist Village, the micro-neighborhood that is headquarters to Motor City Blight Busters.

Miller said public art, as well as the involvement of community members in making it, is the best way to jump-start a revitalized Detroit. George, the director of Blight Buster, agrees. The two work hand-in-hand -- George handling the demolition and construction, and Miller icing the cake with art.

In his seven years with P.A.W.S., Miller has focused on creating murals, mostly -- but not exclusively -- in the Artist Village neighborhood at Lahser and Grand River on Detroit's west side. His goal, according to his website, is: "To revitalize Northwest Detroit into a world class Public Art Showcase using Murals as the catalyst for change." Part of the objective is to mentor kids and give them exposure to art and mural-making, foster accomplishment, volunteerism and nonviolence.

But recently a new vision came to him: a host of butterflies to brighten parks, perk up abandoned properties and glorify rehab projects. He's already installed some in Gordon Park where Al Taylor's Peace Project is reclaiming the blighted corner where the 1967 riot began. He's adding butterflies to the Brightmoor neighborhood's nature trail in Eliza Howell Park and Brightmoor Community Garden projects.

Miller's butterflies adorn an empty Brightmoor apartment building and the Detroit Mural Factory Garden on Woodward and Kenilworth, south of the Boston-Edison Historic District. By summer's end he hopes 1,000 of the painted reliefs will "saturate" the city.

Miller described the project as a "graffiti abatement program," citing the defunct Pizza Hut on Grand River near Artist Village. It was covered with "some of the worst graffiti defacement I'd ever seen," the artist said.

When the owner finally had it painted gray, Miller and company brought in the papillons, which have remained untouched in the couple of months they've been up. "I've never had anyone deface any of my murals," Miller said, noting that most artists -- graffiti or otherwise -- respect good work. "So we see the butterflies as a graffiti prevention program."

Miller said the owners of three other vacant businesses have requested papillons for their buildings.

Miller said he plans to create a series of collectible papillons, hoping that their sale will raise enough funds to complete the public art project. He is seeking donations of plywood and paint and organizations willing to help spread the papillon spirit.

Contact Chazz Miller at info@publicartworkz.org">info@publicartworkz.org or call (313) 334-2919.