Russian artist Vadim Zaritsky has conceived of an unusual way to make his “paintings”—he collects dead butterflies and uses their colorful, fragile wings to compose collage-like artworks.
Having created over 100 butterfly paintings in five years, the artist preserves the beauty of these short-lived insects with his unusual method—each painting can take from a week to a number of months to complete.
Although Zaritsky has insisted that no butterflies were harmed in the creation of his work, he still received criticism from many butterfly activists.
However, if the butterflies are already dead and the wings are going to wither away anyway, why not turn them into stunning artworks and immortalizes for posterity?
View more of Zaritsky’s wonderful artworks below.
[via Visual News]