Inspired by the migratory patterns of monarch butterflies and the traditional belief that the monarchs return each year after a 3000 mile migration as the souls of loved ones who have died, Hilvitz creates three-dimensional assemblies using her own artwork, family photographs, and milkweed pods to explore “the conversation between life and death, spirit and soul, survival of species and the vessel of the seed to disperse these ideas.”

Milkweed pods are the only food source for the monarch caterpillar, and their presence along the migration route throughout North America ensures the continued survival of the species. In the exhibit Hilvitz combines the pods into a series of inventive and nearly-figurative Goddess forms, suspended and monumental fabric elements, and smaller, more intimate sculptural works. Representing personal narratives, cultural allegory and how human beings interpret the natural world to explain abstract ideas, these works have a texture and depth that combines the emotional with the intellectual.

Thoughtfully combining human narrative with organic processes, Hilvitz prompts us to consider our own part in the natural world, transcending borders of many kinds.