Tiny's Butterflies

Some say butterflies are symbols of beauty. Visions of enchanted gardens and fairies come to mind. Pastel and vibrant colors decorating the greens. Some say that at some instances it can symbolize bad luck, or even death coming your way. This may be all true for others, but for Justin “Tiny” Nuyda, butterflies are heaven sent and continually breaches through as inspirations, becoming his pride and joy.

Nuyda is a self-certified butterfly collector. He started collecting butterflies at a very young age and would go to different places to discover new species and enjoy the wonders of nature. But this hobby of collecting butterflies does not stop there, it has grown into a serious devotion to know more. In fact he has a full collection at home that he proudly boasts about.

His collection ranges from species collected from deep forests to magnificent hilltops and mountains. The classifications of each are carefully group and mounted in their own containers, which are all lined up in a huge storing cabinet. One would be amazed at the intricate details and the neat order of the butterfly displays.

Nuyda brings along foreigners, who are butterfly collectors as well, in his numerous expeditions. His devotion awarded him much recognition from his peers. German scientist, Dr.Johann Keisler, even named a butterfly after him! They included his name, Justin, with the scientific name. Japanese people who would write to him calls him “doctor” because of his wide knowledge about the world of butterflies. He can actually consider that title because, just recently, the University of Saranggani, Philippines now considers him as a doctor.

With his knowledge and wide collection it doesn’t stop there. Nuyda is a one of the great visual artists that we have in the Philippines. His caliber is in the range of the artists like Malang, Ben Cab, Manansala, Legaspi, and the like. What separates his artwork from the others is his ability to produce something visually entertaining that is produced from the combined images in his mind, and the magnificence of butterflies.

He is also working on numerous projects to increase awareness of the public about these creatures. He claims that there is a dwindling record on the number of species left in this country, a place where enormous amounts of butterflies once lived.

Aside from the intensive research and the journals that he gets to publish, he is working on a coffee table book about, well you guessed it, butterflies. By sketching the exact same images of each species and combining information and inspirational data with these, he believes that this will truly bring people to a level of the much needed awareness that he is hoping for.