It was on the Pennsylvania banks of the Delaware River two and a half years ago that Victor Matthews stumbled upon his inspiration-a single monarch butterfly dying in the dirt, its wings savaged by ants.

		"Beautiful," he recalls. "I had to pick it up." This month, near the banks of the Hudson, after what he describes as both a "great odyssey" and "crazy struggle" the Tribeca artist will see his vision fully realized-a colony of "butterflies" alighting in Battery Park. "Beyond Metamorphosis," a collection of nearly 3,000 umbrellas, each hand-painted to resemble the wings of a monarch, will be on view in the Battery, just south of the Bowling Green subway station, for two weeks beginning June 7. "It starts here, right here," Matthews said, springing open an umbrella on a recent morning in the park, where he often goes to paint. He was standing in the center of the park's three-acre lawn, spinning in a circle as he described how the umbrellas would spiral out and fill the
space. Days earlier he was standing in his Broadway studio among the hundreds of umbrellas he'd recently painted orange, black and yellow. The canvas-and-wood umbrellas, which he chose for their sturdiness and their skin-and-skeleton likeness to insects, were fanned out across the floor. By his count, he had 390 more to complete. "It wouldn't be very spiritual to just screen print them," he said. "It's become a genuine part of my life, the only thing I can think of, painting these monarchs. I can't do anything else until they're out there." The city rejected his first request to install "Beyond Metamorphosis" on the Battery Park lawn. Determined to display his works, he packed 350 of the pieces into duffel bags and migrated with them to Jamaica. There, he floated his butterflies down a river, installed them in a limestone pit, and hung them in the giant roots of a bread fruit tree that dangled inside a cavern that once housed slaves. "I wanted to show that these monarchs could actually bring some spiritual life into those desolate, cold places," he said. "And I wanted to make the connection that no land is too far for them to reach." In March 2003, Matthews tried floating his butterflies on the Hudson off Pier 92. But after one day the river froze, bringing his installation to an untimely end. Undaunted, Matthews reapplied to the city for permission to show his butterflies in Battery Park. After a six-month wait, he got the nod. "It's been like this crazy struggle," he said, "I'm glad they're finally getting out there." Matthews, 41, grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and studied art at the High School of Art and Design and the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. He gained attention in the 1980s through the murals he painted on the sides of buildings in Soho and Noho. Since then he has sold to private collectors and his work was featured in the 48th Venice Biennale. Matthews estimates that his project will cost up to $70,000, part of it coming out of his own pocket, with additional support from donations made through his fiscal sponsor, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. "It seems like a simple concept, but when you see it, this ocean of umbrellas, it is quite arresting," Deborah Dewees, director of arts services for the LMCC, said of the project. "We're thrilled to be hosting it. We think it's a wonderful way to welcome people to the park," said Warrie Price, president of The Battery Conservancy. Matthews, with the help of volunteers, plans to install the umbrellas and the 9,000 stakes and cables that will tether them to the lawn in just 48 hours. They will flutter in the park for only 14 days. Beyond that, the artist says he has no plans for the butterflies he calls his "babies." And he insists that he won't sell them. "I'd like for them to stay together as a family," he said.