SANCAI, 2023

SANCAI is a Chinese word, meaning "three colors," for a Tang Dynasty glaze developed in the late 7th century. The combination of colors is historically white, amber, and green and, though Butterfield's sculpture is not literally a blend of these three colors, the artist was thinking of the Tang Dynasty horses she has seen while she patinated this work. The colors in this patina are of bleached Ō'hia wood, sand, and terra cotta.

The basic structure of branches and sticks create the edition matrix, each piece in the variable edition will be patinated differently.

In addition to the variable patination within the SANCAI edition, variable attachments of bronze cast leaves and flowers from the Ō’hia Lehua tree are welded on by the artist. Many native Hawaiian traditions refer to the Ō’hia Lehuna tree, and the forests it forms, as sacred to Pele, the volcano goddess, and to Laka, the goddess of Hula. Ō’hia trees are resilient, growing easily on lava, and are usually the first plants to grow on new lava flows.