“The Magic of the Melody”: The Story of Papillon
- Linda Chido
- May 27
- 5 min read
Updated: May 28
Papillon: The Painting That Sparked a Series
Some paintings don’t arrive in a straight line. They come in flashes—like puzzle pieces scattered across the yard. I might catch one edge, one color, one shape. And even when I think I can see it all coming together, it’s like looking at a composition buried in a fog flickering at the edge of clarity, just out of reach.
But then—boom.
Suddenly, it’s there. Fully formed. In technicolor. In my mind’s eye.
I call those hits downloads.
When a download won’t leave me alone, it goes into my mental queue—a growing list of painting ideas waiting their turn. But when a painting won’t wait—when it screams to be made—that’s when the studio work begins: gathering references, selecting the paper size, prepping surfaces, choosing mediums. The download might be the spark, but bringing a painting to life takes time, quiet choices, and layered decisions—one step leading to the next until the painting is complete.
That’s exactly how Papillon came to be.
The puzzle piece flashes had been circling for a while, but the final vision came all at once, triggered by a single line in a song I’ve loved for decades:
The magic of the melody runs through you like a stream
I was driving with the radio cranked when Hold On by Triumph came on. I’ve loved that song forever—top five material. I was singing full volume when that lyric hit. And in that moment, I saw it. The image. The feeling. The painting.
That was the beginning—not just of Papillon, but of a whole new series.
The Emotional Root
What I saw in that moment wasn’t abstract—it was rooted in something very real. It reminded me of watching my kiddo, Mona Rae, perform. Mona is an extraordinarily gifted musician—an intuitive pianist and singer-songwriter. And every time I see them play, I cry.
Every. Single. Time.
Not out of pride, though I'm sure there's some of that, but because something bigger seems to move through them. It feels sacred. Like I’m witnessing a direct channel to something divine.
That’s what I wanted to capture—not just a likeness, but a feeling. The kind of experience I have when I watch Mona play, when the music moves through their body as if from a divine source and becomes something fully felt, something visceral.
A Painting Full of Meaning
Papillon became the first painting in the Music Series Collection, but at the time, I wasn’t thinking in terms of a collection. I was simply following a vision.
The painting is a portrait of a pianist in that suspended, transcendent state—head tilted, fingers poised just above the keys. But look closer, and you’ll see the music is more than just symbolic. It’s collaged into the piece itself, streaming into the pianist’s back and bursting through her chest in a stream of blue butterflies.
The butterflies are more than decorative. They’re deeply personal. The blue butterfly has long been a symbol of Mona Rae in my work. I have a tattoo of one—my “mommy tattoo”—and countless baby photos of Mona dressed as a butterfly. I even painted a portrait of them as a butterfly in a piece called Morpho Musica. So in Papillon, the blue butterflies represent both transformation and Mona’s presence in the music itself.
Even the title has layers: Papillon is French for butterfly, and it also happens to be the name of the sheet music I collaged into the painting—an old French composition that Mona once learned to play. It was perfect. A moment of quiet alchemy.
A Turning Point in the Studio
Papillon also marked a major technical shift in my studio practice. I had recently made the leap into painting with oils on paper with a previous piece, Remember Her?, and wanted to keep exploring what that material could offer. For Papillon, I decided to try something I hadn’t done before: collaging as part of the underpainting.
This led me into some research and experimentation with acrylic mediums, drying times, and how they would interact with the Mische Technique, my foundational process. I began the painting with loose, gestural marks and intuitive movement. Then came the collage—the Papillon sheet music—and finally the underpainting, layered with the precision and care of the mische method.
The Song That Started It All
As I worked, the Triumph lyrics kept echoing in my head.
"Music holds the secret,
To know it can make you whole
It's not just a game of notes,
It's the sounds inside your soul
The magic of the melody
Runs through you like a stream
The notes that play flow through your head
Like a dream"
Looking back, the song and lyrics of Hold On weren’t just the spark for Papillon—they were the beginning of a deeper inquiry that shaped the Music Series Collection as a whole.
How does music make us feel?
That question became my compass. I wasn’t interested in painting the literal act of music-making, but rather the internal experience of it—how it moves through the body, evokes memory, breaks us open, lifts us up, and makes us cry. Each painting in the series is a response to that question in its own way.
In that sense, Papillon wove together everything I was exploring at the time—emotionally, technically, and symbolically. It is the root of the Music Series Collection.
A Note on the Painting
The original Papillon painting is sold, but it remains the spiritual heart of the Music Series Collection—a body of work exploring the emotional experience of music through portraiture, symbolism, and story.
And there’s a beautiful story behind its sale.
The painting was purchased by my childhood friend of over 50 years, Rachel Webb (Sleeps With Dogs & Rachel Writes Buffalo), a longtime collector of mine.
I had only teased Papillon in a post on Instagram—just a glimpse—and shortly after, I received a text from Rachel that read: “Asking for a friend... is Papillon available?”
At the time, the painting wasn’t even listed in my Shop yet. I scrambled to get it up on the site so her “friend” could purchase it easily. Within five minutes of it going live, the painting was sold.
Of course, it wasn’t "a friend". It was Rachel all along.
She told me later that she was concerned that if she had asked me directly to buy the painting, I would’ve given her the “BFF discount”. But she wanted to support me and my work, so she created a clever little ruse to pay what she called “the proper price.”
I’m so grateful for this friendship that has lasted my lifetime—and for longtime collectors like Rachel, whose support means more than I can ever fully express. It’s these connections, built through a love of art and over time, are a huge reason why I do what I do.
🦋 You may also want to check out my talented kiddo, Mona Rae Chido Gross. On their website you can both see their visual art and listen to their music. https://www.monaraegross.com/ 🦋
🖼️ Collect from the Music Series Collection
Original paintings from the Music Series are available for purchase. If one speaks to you, I invite you to make it part of your collection.
👉 View available work or email me at linda@lindachido.com
🖨️ Print Release Coming Soon
Select works from the Music Series Collection will also be available as limited edition fine art prints—a beautiful, affordable way to bring this work into your space.
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