By Al B Johnson

Al B is a local abstract artist who has a studio at the Sluice in Old Colorado City and is a Resident Artist at Platte Collections Gallery in the Knob Hill area. He has been a part of the Rotary's Wings of Change (formerly Flight) for many years. He started because he supported the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs efforts to provide grants for STEAM programs in District 11 schools. His butterflies are always known to be colorful and creative and he has developed a following over the years that made him an ideal choice to create the Rotary Raffle Butterfly for the past few years. His experience has been very helpful to artists participating in the Rotary Wings of Change event in that he is considered to be an expert on what works and doesn't and how to best represent artists designs. He has been a mentor to the other artists involved in Wings of Change projects and has worked hard to contribute to the success of this program.

Al B is the artist of the 2024 raffle butterfly "Chouka" meaning "butterfly flower" in Japanese. Al B has been very busy sharing his talents with Wings of Change this year as the artist of four additional pieces. He has painted a garden dragonfly "Big Blue", inspired by a real dragonfly; A garden butterfly "Buttercup", a petite butterfly "Personal Monarch" and a petite dragonfly "Little Red".