The Butterfly Effect 2021

Lanise Howard created this oil painting, called "The Butterfly Effect", in the twenty-first century. The intimate portrait shows a young couple with butterflies drifting around them against a hazy sunset. The title invokes the idea that even small actions can have huge consequences, a concept that's especially relevant in our own time. The artist's choice to paint these figures in a way that mixes the ordinary with the symbolic seems to speak to the wider social challenges. The work avoids a conventional narrative in favor of something more elusive and open-ended. In deciphering Howard's image, we can look to the artist's own statements and explore the critical discussions around contemporary portraiture and social representation. Ultimately, the meaning of a work like this arises from the rich interplay between the artist's intentions, its cultural context, and our own encounters as viewers.