What's "bugging" me...

Well, I did it. I submitted 3 pieces for consideration into Riff Raff's Halloween art show and party at Koken Art Factory. Now I wait for the next 5 days to find out if any or all will be accepted. I submitted the 2 paintings from my previous post, "Broken" and "Who is making THAT baby?" as well as the one shown below. I'm really proud of myself for not only entering the show but also for busting butt all weekend to prepare. I started a new painting on Friday and had it almost completed that day. I finished it Sunday morning. That's what's "bugging" me...

my "Portrait of a Butterfly", shown here, colored pencil on Mi-Tientes paper, 16x12.
I like the idea of how pretty things can be creepy and how things that creep us out can actually be beautiful. With a few simple lines or angle of viewing, along with color choice, we can affect how the subject is viewed and even how the viewer is affected emotionally. Because I chose to make the head and eyes particularly prominent in the painting, it became a creepy painting of a bug. Additionally, with the lime green glow around him, and the hint of red in the background and accents all over him, he becomes seemingly more nefarious. Had I chosen to put more accent on the traditionally pretty colors and parts of him, he would be just another pretty butterfly.

This leads to a question I have for anyone out there so inclined to help answer-does it lack in content? I mean, is it enough to be a portrait of a butterfly, or does it need to have a more developed setting, an implied context from which the viewer can answer the question of why paint a portrait of a butterfly? Does it need more of a story?

I have another piece that I wish I had been able to finish before the deadline. It's something I started many months ago and have set aside because I'm unsure of how to finish it. The working title is Left vs. Right and it is about the brain's hemisphere dominance and how it controls and influences our choices. I've been reluctant to post any pictures of it because it is unfinished and I don't want to taint how people view it by seeing it in that state. Sometimes I tempted though. Okay, just a sample...

colored pencil on Mi-Tientes, 18x24. This small section is finished I think. The different colors are waves spiraling outward, interweaving with each other. It is the waves outside of the brain (not shown) that need development and where I'm stuck. I have a couple of ideas but I'm simply scared to act at this point, I suppose. I've put so much work into it already and it has huge potential and I just don't want to screw it up. Feel me on this?

I think I need to join a drawing or painting group so that I can have other opinions more readily available. Maybe I should try to host an online critique session. Hmmm... there's an idea